


A Different Path

by hummerhouse



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003)
Genre: Adult Content, Complete, Language, M/M, Turtlecest, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-23
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-14 16:43:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 46,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3418064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hummerhouse/pseuds/hummerhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Disclaimer: The TMNT are not mine. No money being made.<br/>Word Count: 46,364<br/>Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?<br/>Prologue Rated: NC-17 TCest, language, adult concepts and situations<br/>Prologue Pairing: Raph/Don<br/>Fan Art attached to this story is EXPLICIT - NSFW</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

_1 Month, 2 Days, 1 Hour, 7 Minutes_

That was how long it had been since Raphael stormed out of the lair. Since then, no one in the small Hamato clan or their tight circle of friends had seen him, including Casey Jones.

Donatello wasn’t trying to keep track of how much time his hot headed brother had been gone, it was simply that a compartment in his brain had filed the information and periodically flashed him a reminder. That knowledge was pretty useless considering there was nothing to compare it against; no one had any idea if or when Raph would return home.

The only thing any of them did know was that he was still alive and still in New York City. The pulverized and battered Purple Dragon’s, petty criminals, street thugs, and the occasional Foot soldier that Raph sent to the hospital attested to that fact.

None had ended up in the morgue though. Not yet.

Don picked through a mound of busted computer parts in a desultory fashion, flipping pieces aside without any real hope of finding something useful. He didn’t need anything in particular other than to be alone with his thoughts and to breathe a little of the city’s semi-fresh air.

All of them were paying the price for Raph’s insurrection. Master Splinter had increased the number and length of practice sessions since their brother’s departure. It was as though Master Splinter felt the need to ensure that Raph’s insubordination and defiance wasn’t contagious.

Raph’s problem wasn’t physical, it was philosophical, and no amount of extra training would have fixed that. Don had a feeling that Master Splinter was as much at a loss as they all were in how to get through to his rebellious son.

‘Life is sacred.’

‘Not to those vermin.’

‘It is not our place to be judge and jury.’

‘Then whose is it? The whole system is corrupt.’

‘That path will blacken your heart.’

‘Seeing the victims already did that.’

‘Many are too young to know better.’

‘Maybe this’ll teach them.’

‘You cannot choose death against a maybe.’

‘Someone has ta, life ain’t ever a sure thing.’

‘There is no honor in becoming an executioner.’

‘I ain’t looking for honor, I’m looking for justice.’

‘Justice should be decided by a jury of their peers.’

‘That notion only works if someone catches them.’

‘The forces at work are much larger than you, my son.’

‘They wouldn’t be if we cut off the snake’s head.’

‘That is not your place!’

‘Welcome ta America and the twenty-first century.’

‘Do not use that tone with me.’

‘Why don’t ya’ tell the teacher’s pet ta do his job? Or is he too good ta soil his hands?’

The pieces of that final altercation played on an endless loop through Don’s mind. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do with them and that plagued him.

In the past Don had been the one to whom Raph would vent his frustrations. Don’s calming voice of reason had always been able to help Raph sort out the things that were bothering him and to then soothe his ruffled sense of injustice. Not this time though because Raph had immediately stormed out of the lair without a backward glance.

_1 Month, 2 Days, 1 Hour, 44 Minutes_

A sudden crawling sensation across the back of his neck reminded Donatello that he hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings. Following his instincts, he instantly darted into the shadows cast by stacks of junk cars, pulling his bo staff as he moved.

Don’s eyes swept the area around him but he spotted nothing. Still the feeling of being watched lingered and he chose not to ignore it, having been trained that doing so was a good way to get killed.

The deep rumble of amusement to his right turned Don’s head and he saw a flash of gold reflected in the moonlight.

“Raph?” Don asked, his voice low and cautious.

“Yeah genius.” Raph came out of the darkness with a rolling swagger, the touch of a grin still lingering at the corners of his mouth.

“Where have you been? What have you been doing?” He tried not to sound demanding, but seeing Raph like this after a month of worry made Don slightly angry.

“Don’t get your shell in a bunch,” Raph said, his tone even and mildly mocking. “Good thing it’s me and not some of Karai’s goons. Ya’ still ain’t learned ta watch your own back.”

“I do just fine,” Don said, frowning at his brother’s nonchalant attitude.

“Ya’ gotta be so disapproving Donny?” Raph asked, taking Don’s staff from him and setting it aside. The back of his hand stroked along Don’s plastron, the fingers sliding beneath the strap on his brother’s duffel bag. Catching the strap on his palm, Raph lifted the bag from Don’s shoulder and tossed it to the ground. “We ain’t seen each other in a while.”

“Whose fault is that?” Don countered. “You stomped out of the lair without a word to us and disappeared for a month. An entire month Raph!”

“Keeping track; I like that,” Raph said, his voice husky. Edging closer to his brother, he slid both palms upwards on Don’s arms, stopping to grip his shoulders.

When Raph leaned in to him, Don turned his head aside. “Stop that. We need to talk.”

“After,” Raph rumbled, nipping at Don’s neck with determination.

“N . . . no,” Don stammered. “Now.”

“No,” Raph pressed his tongue to Don’s throat and traced the curve of it up to his brother’s jawline. “After.”

Mesmerized by Raph’s deep bass, Don twisted his head around to try and see into his brother’s eyes. Raph seized the opportunity and planted his mouth against Don’s, pushing against it so insistently that Don’s lips parted.

Raph’s hum of satisfaction vibrated Don’s tongue. His hands, which had been on the verge of shoving his brother away, instead gripped the edges of Raph’s shell almost desperately.

“Gotta have ya’ bro’,” Raph whispered, forcing Don backwards a few feet and into the open doors of a wrecked van.

Don had a fleeting thought that his brother had been waiting for him to reach just this spot, but it quickly vanished as Raph shoved him onto his carapace and parted his legs.

Through hooded eyes, Don watched Raph’s cock make an appearance, glistening with natural lubricant and pre-cum. Don’s pulse quickened as Raph’s hand snaked slowly across the underside of his tail, teased his anal entrance, and found its way to the slit in Don’s plastron.

“Drop,” Raph ordered in a guttural voice.

Shivering with sudden need, Don’s erection presented itself and was quickly grasped. With a hand that was both too rough and too gentle, Raph stroked his brother to full arousal, drawing an unbidden churr from Donatello.

Raph gripped the back of Don’s left calf and lifted his brother’s leg, coaxing him to plant his foot on the bumper. Understanding that Raph wanted him splayed and open, Don’s other leg quickly followed.

Don’s eyes tracked the movement of Raph’s free hand as his brother pumped himself a few times, coating his fingers with the gleaming wetness that covered his cock. One of those fingers painted the outside of Don’s rectum and then pushed its way past the tight muscle guarding Don’s entrance.

A few thrusts of that finger was all the preparation Raph’s impatience allowed him and Don braced himself, breathing deeply and steadily as Raph lined up the head of his dick with his brother’s opening.

Raph grunted as he breached Don, his own churr vibrant and nearly visual. His pants and groans as he began to drive into Don were louder than usual and had Don gasping in return.

Pumping Don’s cock in time with his movements, Raph’s golden eyes bore into Don’s chocolate orbs. Raph was a captive to his emotions and Don could only imagine how a month without sex had felt to the passionate turtle.

Usually vocal during their couplings, this time Raph used no words as he set a rhythmic pace, allowing his more animalistic sounds to convey his need. His cock was thick and long and it was a matter of seconds before it began to brush against Don’s prostate, sending spikes of pleasure into the purple banded turtle’s groin.

Don’s legs began to shake as he drew near his orgasm, his knees brushing Raph’s shell. He could feel Raph’s cock expanding inside of him, growing hotter and harder with each deep thrust.

“Cum,” Raph growled.

“Ah, ah, argghh!” Don cried out as he followed that command, his heavy climax spilling over Raph’s fist and spurting onto Don’s plastron.

“Sh~it!” Raph croaked as he came, continuing to move his hips while emptying himself in Don’s willing body.

Head down and eyes closed, Raph remained where he was and Don stared at him while trying to catch his breath. He had questions for his quicksilver brother, the topmost being when Raph was going to come home.

His gaze expectant, Don lay quiet as Raph pulled out of him and tucked himself away. Leaning forward, Raph caught one of Don’s mask tails in his messy hand, using the material to clean himself off.

Stunned, Don pushed himself onto his elbows as Raph stepped back from him. Before he could say anything, Raph grinned wolfishly and patted his knee.

“Thanks for the fuck,” Raph said before spinning around and sprinting off.

Mouth open, Don watched him leave and then looked down at the puddle of jizz on his plastron, the feeling of Raph’s essence leaking from beneath his tail leaving him slightly sickened.

_1 Month, 2 Days, 2 Hours, 19 Minutes_

TBC……………..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This provocative image was created for this story by ashitarimai on DeviantArt.  
> 


	2. Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 1,835  
> Rated: R TCest, Pairing: Leo/Don  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Don used the contents of a bottle of water to clean himself off as much as possible; removing and rinsing his mask in the hopes of eradicating the telltale residue Raph had left there.

            When he reached the lair, Don entered quietly, hoping that due to the lateness of the hour no one would notice him.  All he wanted to do was slip into a warm shower and remove all traces of his humiliating encounter with Raph.

            It was a vain hope.  Leonardo was seated on the couch watching the late news, no doubt waiting for him.  The oldest had always worried when any one of them was out alone but ever since Raph’s vitriolic departure, Leo had turned into a veritable Cerberus.

            When their eyes met, Don lifted a hand in greeting and made for the stairs, trying to appear completely normal.  Unfortunately, he’d never had much of a poker face when his feelings were involved and even in the semi-darkness Leo apparently spotted something.

            Just as his feet touched the staircase, Don saw Leo leap lightly over the back of the couch.  Before Don made it even three steps, there was a strong hand gripping his elbow and pulling him to a stop.

            “Your mask is wet,” Leo said.  “Are you all right?”

            “Sure,” Don answered, “just a little mishap with some standing water at the junkyard.  I was on my way up to rinse off.”

            Don’s heart skipped a beat when he saw Leo’s nostrils flare.  Raph’s scent clung to Don like a glove and the genius turtle knew there was no way to avoid explanations now.

            “You were with Raph.”  Leo made it a statement, the tone accusatory.

            “I was not _with_ him,” Don said, unsuccessfully attempting to tug his arm from Leo’s grip.  “He found me in the junkyard.”

            “And you had sex with him,” Leo said, his eyes hard as flint.  “Or was it rape?”

            This time Don did jerk his arm from Leo’s grasp.  “It’s only been a month; do you honestly think he’s abandoned _all_ sense of honor?”

            “Was it consensual?  Why didn’t he come home with you?” Leo asked persistently.

            Having held it together for the last hour, Don could feel his calm veneer crack.  Mouth tightening, Don lifted a hand to cover his eyes and sank down on the steps.

            “He said he’d talk to me . . . after,” Don admitted, his voice low.

            “Donny?”  Leo crouched down and tried to look into his brother’s face, but Don refused to move his hand.  “What happened?” Leo asked in a much softer tone.

            It took several minutes for the stabbing pain in Don’s chest to subside so that he could answer that question.  Leo respected his silence, waiting patiently for his brother to feel ready to talk.

            “Raph was watching for me,” Don finally said.  “He waited until I got near where he was hiding before letting me see him.  I thought . . . I was sure that he was reaching out to me, offering me a chance to help him find a way to come home without having to swallow his pride.”

            Leo nodded; he would have thought the same.  “That would be like him.”

            “Something is different about him,” Don said.  “I wanted explanations and he just came on to me, no conversation, no preliminaries.  It was like an animal rutting.  I let him use me, Leo.  I thought I was giving him a needed connection back to us.  Only when he was done, he thanked me for the . . . the . . . .”

            Don couldn’t finish and Leo reached for his hand, gently pulling it away from Don’s eyes and giving it a reassuring squeeze.  “I’m sorry,” Leo said gently.

            “He left immediately after,” Don told him, his mouth quivering slightly.  “Just turned and disappeared.  I don’t know whether to be angry, or hurt, or numb.”

            “Those are probably all valid reactions,” Leo said.  “Come on, let’s forget Raph for a few minutes and get you cleaned up.”

            Standing, Leo urged Don to his feet.  The younger turtle rose slowly, feeling completely drained, and allowed his brother to pilot him up the stairs and to the bathroom.

            When they reached the bathroom door, Don offered Leo a wan smile and said, “I can manage this on my own.”

            Leo’s gaze was searching, but he didn’t argue the point.  Holding out his hand, Leo said, “Give me your bo and the bag; I’ll put them in your room for you.”

            Don handed his things over to his brother and watched as Leo headed towards his bedroom.  Going into the bathroom, Don didn’t bother locking the door; Leo would give him his privacy.

            Starting the shower, Don removed his gear while waiting for the water to get warm.  He knew Leo would have gladly stayed with him to help him bathe away Raph’s scent, but this was an ablution Don needed to perform by himself.

            Once he was beneath the cleansing cascade, Don concentrated on removing all evidence of his encounter with Raph.  He tried not to dwell on the reason he had to take a shower at such an early morning hour, instead focusing on the ritual itself.

            Don couldn’t help but remember how he once loved Raph’s smell as it clung to his body, reminding him of shared pleasure with the brother whose fire could burn him from the inside out.  Now Don couldn’t get that scent off of himself fast enough.

            When Don stepped into his room he found Leo waiting for him, a cup in his hands.

            “A little late for coffee,” Don said tiredly.

            Leo’s lips lifted at the corners, his smile sympathetic.  “It’s warm milk.  To help you sleep.”

            “I don’t need . . . .” Don started to protest, but Leo cut him off.

            “Ease my mind?”  Leo held the cup out to him and Don accepted it.

            After the first sip he was glad that he did.  The warmth was soothing and took away the taste of Raph’s mouth, something brushing his teeth hadn’t accomplished.

            Don sat down on the edge of his bed to finish the milk, expecting that Leo would leave now that he’d gotten his younger brother settled.  Instead, Leo began removing his gear, setting it on the battered desk next to where Don had placed his things.

            “I’m okay, Leo,” Don said, eyeing him.  “You don’t have to stay.”

            Leo took a seat next to him.  “Maybe I just want to.  Makes me feel useful.”

            _“And keeps the rest of this family together,”_ Don thought, not uncharitably, as he finished the milk.

            Placing the empty cup on his night stand, Don sighed and looked at Leo.  “Thanks.  For the milk and the . . . support.”

            Leo lifted a hand, letting the backs of his fingers lightly brush Don’s jawline, the gesture tender and reassuring.  Don leaned towards him and their mouths met, the kiss soft, their tongues ghosting across each other’s.  It did more to calm Don’s ragged nerves than the hot shower and milk combined.

            When they separated it was by silent mutual agreement.  Don twisted around to lie down and Leo crawled in next to him, pulling a blanket over them.

            Don switched out the light and turned onto his side so that he could see Leo, who was lying on his back.

            Though he could not completely ease his mind about what had happened earlier, Don found that he was glad Leo had decided to remain with him.  He was pretty sure that by himself in the darkness of his room, his memory would have started a replay of events he’d just as soon forget.  Leo’s presence was soothing.

            “Have we lost him?” Don asked after a couple of minutes, his voice low and slightly tremulous.

            Leo’s head rolled in Don’s direction and he set his hand on his brother’s thigh.  “No,” Leo said firmly.  “We’ll get him back.  What he did was wrong, very wrong, but he made contact Donny.  He knows he needs us and even though his actions were completely misguided and hurtful, he did recognize that he _wanted_ to reach out to you.”

            “He’s just confused,” Don said in a small voice, almost as a mantra to convince himself.

            “Yes,” Leo quickly agreed.  “He’s confused and didn’t mean to wound you that way.  He’s simply . . . lashing out, the only way he knows how.”

            Don sighed.  Leo had a way of explaining things that always made him feel better, no matter how rough the situation appeared.  The mental fatigue caught up to him then and Don suddenly felt exhausted.

            “Goodnight, Leo.  Thanks for being there,” Don repeated in a whisper, finally at peace enough to fall asleep.

            Once he heard Don’s breathing even out, Leo turned his head and contemplated the ceiling as he processed the evening’s events.  Don was and would be upset by Raph’s callous actions for some time, possibly to the point where he’d tell himself he couldn’t forgive the hot head.  But he would eventually; that was Don’s nature.

            Leo wasn’t sure if that kind of forgiveness was inside of him though.  There was more to what Raph had done to Don tonight than mere pique or even open rebellion.  Leo would never admit to Don how Raph’s actions could be perceived in another way; that it could have been an act of open defiance against whatever morality was still clinging to Raph.

            By behaving so cavalierly with the most gentle member of the family, Raph could have been forcing himself to burn all bridges back to his home and his clan.

            Whatever happened, if they did manage to overcome Raph’s current challenge and bring him home, Leo had to wonder whether Don would ever trust Raph again.  He might forgive him, but that was within the purview of the heart, something Don had plenty of.  Trust was another matter altogether.

            If Leo had a team where even one member didn’t trust another, then he didn’t really have a team.  As their leader, it would be incumbent upon him to decide if they could ever again face life or death situations.

            All of that aside, Leo was still left with a small curl of anger growing in his chest.  Whatever else he’d done, Raph had shown Donatello the kind of disrespect that bordered on cruelty.

            Vindictiveness was not normally in his nature, but the oldest could be pushed far enough to find even that emotion deep inside himself.  The fact that Leo had to face was that he loved Donatello too much to allow Raphael to get away with what he’d done.

            There was a good chance that whatever Leo chose to do about it would be a sure way to destroy not only his team, but his family.  A niggling suspicion in the back of his mind questioned whether that was what Raph had wanted all along.

TBC……


	3. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 3,781  
> Rated: R TCest  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?  
> Pairing: Leo/Mikey

            Mikey reached into the refrigerator and grabbed the jug of milk, kicking the door shut on his way to the kitchen table.  As he sat down he gave the jug a shake.

            “Looks like somebody needs to go shopping, we’re almost out of milk,” Mikey said, looking at Leo and Don who were already seated.

            His brothers glanced at each other but didn’t say anything.  Mikey’s eyes narrowed; his gaze thoughtful as he poured the last of the milk on his cereal.

            “I guess that somebody would be me,” Mikey muttered before digging his spoon into the bowl.

            With his first mouthful, Mikey contemplated his siblings.  All during morning practice Leo and Don had appeared subdued, even more subdued than they’d been since Raph’s stormy exit a month earlier.

            Mikey was very observant and he did not miss the looks that passed between his brothers while they sparred.  It was as though they were communicating silently and that usually meant something was going on that Mikey wasn’t privy to.  Since he hated being left out of the loop, and since neither of his brothers was forthcoming, Mikey was just going to have to dig around until he struck information gold.

            “You guys sure are quiet this morning,” Mikey said, his opening gambit benign.

            “I’m a little tired,” Don said quietly.

            “Oh yeah, ‘cause you went to the junkyard last night,” Mikey said.  “What time did you get back?”

            Once more Don’s eyes shot over to Leo, who was sipping his tea and watching Mikey like a hawk.  Mikey met the look with the tiniest hint of smugness curling the corners of his mouth.  Big bro’ knew that Mikey was about to start probing, but Don hadn’t caught on.  If Leo thought that steely eyed stare would force him to back off, he had another think coming.

            “It was late,” Don admitted before taking a small bite of his toast.

            “If it took you that long you must have found something good,” Mikey said around a mouthful of cereal.  “I wanna see it.”

            Don coughed up a piece of toast and Leo set his cup down a little harder than necessary.

            “He didn’t find anything,” Leo said firmly.

            “I guess you’d know ‘cause you were waiting up for him when I went to bed,” Mikey replied quickly.  “You guys decide to mess around a little instead of sleeping?”

            “What makes you ask that?” Don asked, a hint of alarm in his voice.

            Mikey shot him a disarming smile.  “There was a wet towel in the bathroom this morning.  Come to think of it, there was just one.  Are you sharing towels now?”

            “No,” Leo said, rescuing Don from Mikey’s gimlet stare.  “Don had a little accident and had to rinse off when he got home.  No big mystery.”

            “Gotcha,” Mikey said, starting back in on his cereal as though dropping the subject.

            Don ignored the half eaten toast on his plate as he stared blindly into his coffee cup.  Leo’s eyes turned to study Don, flickered over to Mikey for a minute, and then returned to his own drink.

            “I guess I’m not that hungry,” Don said suddenly, pushing his plate away.

            He was half out of his chair when Mikey leaned forward and abruptly asked, “Does that accident happen to go by the name of Raphael?”

            Don froze, holding his awkward position for two heart beats, unable to decide whether to sit again or flee.  Leo reached for his arm and gave it a reassuring squeeze, looking up at Don with supportive eyes.  Taking a deep breath, Don’s knees buckled as he sat back down.

            “Should I keep guessing or do you guys want to clue me in?” Mikey asked.

            “I ran into him at the junkyard and he isn’t coming home,” Don said shortly.

            “At the junkyard,” Mikey repeated, his eyes fixed on Don.  “Raph hates picking through the junkyard, so either he’s living there or he was guessing you’d show up.  Why’d he want to see you Donny?”

            The haunted look in Don’s dark eyes almost made Mikey wish he hadn’t pushed his interrogation.  Looking from Don to Leo, Mikey saw how tightly Leo’s lips were compressed and knew something unfortunate had happened.

            “Did you guys have a fight?” Mikey asked.

            Don was staring at the table as he answered in a low voice, “No.”

            “Did you get him to tell you what’s going on in that thick head of his?” Mikey queried.

            “He wouldn’t,” Don said.

            Huffing in frustration, Mikey said, “Well something happened.  What the shell, if he was hurt you would have brought him home.  He didn’t want to fight, he didn’t want to talk, and he isn’t hurt.  If it wasn’t any of those things, then why the heck was Raph lying in wait . . . .” Mikey stopped for a second, the gears turning in his head.  “Waiting for _you . . ._ did Raph have sex with you Donny?”

            Don’s eyes closed and Leo tapped the table with a fingertip, drawing Mikey’s attention.

            “We’re not going to talk about it,” Leo said once Mikey was looking at him.

            “We’re already talking about it,” Mikey said, shoving his bowl aside and turning back to Don.  “How did that happen?  Did he force himself on you?”

            “I had sex with him because I thought he’d come home,” Don said quickly, his expression drawn.

            Mikey started to say something but stopped to think about it.  “No,” he said finally.

            “Leave it alone, Mikey,” Leo warned.

            Mikey’s temper flared.  “I won’t,” he snapped.  “You guys think you can leave me out of stuff and that’s okay?  This isn’t like one of Raph’s tantrums where he runs off and spends a couple of nights at Casey’s.  He’s been gone a month without us knowing anything about him.  Raph’s my brother too and I deserve to know what’s going on.”

            “We weren’t trying to leave you out,” Leo insisted.

            “Oh, no, you just didn’t want me to know Raph and Don hooked up while I was asleep,” Mikey said sarcastically.

            “It wasn’t like that,” Don said harshly, his hands coming down to slap the table.

            Once more Mikey studied Don, giving his brother a minute to calm down.  “Raph came on strong and manipulated you into having sex with him, didn’t he?  He probably made you think he’d talk to you like he usually does when he’s gone off the deep end,” Mikey said, his tone sympathetic.

            “Yes,” Don admitted in a low voice.

            “Did he talk or did he just leave?” Mikey asked, a sharp edge in his question.

            “He left without explaining himself,” Leo answered, speaking for Don.  “Raph  reached out to Don because he wants to be connected to us, but he’s still confused and too prideful to admit he was wrong.”

            Mikey frowned, his attention on Leo now rather than Don, wondering if his oldest brother actually believed that.

            “How mad are you?” Mikey asked softly.

            Leo’s eyes narrowed and he imperceptibly shook his head twice, the movement so slight that Donatello didn’t notice it.

            “I’m upset with him obviously,” Leo said, lying for Don’s benefit.  Touching the back of Don’s hand, he added, “But we all know how deep his connection is with you.  I don’t think he was being callous; he figured you’d understand.”

            Mikey wasn’t sure if Don swallowed that, or if he was deluding himself because the alternative was too painful.  He decided he’d play along with Leo because Don obviously wasn’t taking it well.

            “He’s probably kicking himself for not just coming home with you,” Mikey said.  “You know how he gets.”  

            His middle brother nodded, smiling slightly as he looked up at Mikey.

            “Gods you’re persistent,” Don said with a little laugh.

            Mikey shot him a brilliant smile in return.  “That’s my middle name,” he said, accepting Don’s attempt to lighten the mood.

            “Try to eat something, Donny,” Leo suggested, pulling the plate of toast closer to his brother.

            “I’ll take that off your hands if you don’t want it,” Mikey offered, reaching across the table.

            Don slapped the back of his hand good naturedly.  “I do want it.  Get your own.”

            Although Mikey was full of cereal, he got up and made himself some toast, just to have an excuse to sit with Leo and Don.  He could tell that Leo was going to try and stay near the genius so his brother wouldn’t dwell on Raph’s rough handling of him.  Mikey was sticking around because he missed the familiar feeling of family, especially those carefree moments most often shared at the breakfast table.

            Mikey’s mind was clicking even as he joked with his brothers, their banter light hearted and safely far from their current predicament.  Even though Don was a genius, he had certain blind spots, especially with regards to Raphael.

            Don refused to admit that any of them could go bad under the right set of circumstances, Raph least of all.  He thought that Raph’s unrestrained emotions gave the hot head an outlet for his frustrations and Don’s willingness to lend a sympathetic ear made Raph an unlikely candidate for the ‘dark side’.  Donatello was always there to be Raph’s buttress against the storm.

            Just because Mikey had found out what had occurred between Don and Raph didn’t mean he was finished looking for answers.  There wasn’t anything else to be gotten from Don himself and Mikey didn’t want to rub salt in an open wound anyway.  There was nothing to be gained from learning the intricate details of the events from the night before.

            Watching Donatello’s back didn’t just mean during a fight and it was an ingrained habit in all of them.  No one thought of Don as weak; during a battle he could hold his own, but was usually tasked with working some kind of super tech magic.  He couldn’t do that and fight too.

            Protecting Don became so second nature that it spilled over into the personal side of their lives.  Don was their confidant, their doctor, the family giver.  He was gentle and compassionate; the worst you might get from him was barked at if you interrupted something important or a snarky rejoinder if you deserved one.

            Don never stayed pissy for long and usually more than made up for his lapse in humor by doing something special for whomever he’d chewed out.  The occasions where he had to do that were rare; Don was mostly even-tempered, good natured, and kind.

            A Raph who had his head screwed on straight would never in a million years have done such a mean spirited thing to Don.  If someone looked at Donny cross-eyed it was usually Raph who tore them a new one.

            Hearing what Raph had done, even without details, angered Mikey to his core.  He could only imagine how Leo felt, but Mikey knew it wasn’t good.            

            Mikey thought he knew why Leo hadn’t wanted to talk about it in front of Don.  That didn’t mean that Mikey was going to let his oldest brother off the hook of discussing it; Leo could internalize just so much before he blew up.  When Leo lost his temper it was the worst thing ever in existence since the word fury was invented.

            Breakfast finally drew to a close and the two older turtle’s left the kitchen together.  Rather than attempting to tag along behind them, Mikey chose instead to give the kitchen a quick cleaning, earning himself a word of praise from Master Splinter.

            From his father’s demeanor, Mikey could tell that Master Splinter had no idea that Don had interacted with Raph.  That was probably a good thing; sensei was deeply disappointed in Raph’s outright disobedience and learning that Raph had turned even a little cold blooded would have aged their father considerably.

            Waiting to catch Leo alone proved difficult and Mikey had to bide his time.  It wasn’t that Leo was trying to avoid him; his oldest brother knew that Mikey wanted to talk.  No matter what type of conversation Leo anticipated that it would turn out to be, he wasn’t the kind to dodge problems.

            Neither was he the kind to allow a brother to suffer alone.  Leo was obviously concerned about Don’s mental state, probably worried that his genius brother would turn morose if he was allowed to dwell on recent events.

            Therefore it was after dinner when Mikey finally spotted Leo heading into the dojo by himself.  Not knowing how much time he had, Mikey quickly darted after him.

            When Mikey walked in, he saw that Leo was sitting on the weight bench.  He looked up as Mikey approached, giving his younger brother a small nod to acknowledge his presence.

            Leo didn’t like being distracted by conversation when he was doing katas, so he obviously knew Mikey was waiting to talk.  Lying back on the bench, Leo lifted the bar from the rack in order to warm his muscles.

            “Could you use a spotter?” Mikey asked, moving around to the head of the bench.

            “Sure,” Leo said, his arms moving in a smooth rhythm.

            Mikey allowed a minute or two to pass and then asked, “Where’s Donny?”

            “I talked him into going to bed early,” Leo said, replacing the bar.

            Leo sat up and rolled his shoulders, loosening them.  While he stretched, Mikey retrieved some weights from the floor and slid them onto the ends of the bar.

            “Start with twenties?” Mikey asked, locking the weights into position.  Leo always lifted light at the start of a workout.

            “Yeah, thanks,” Leo answered as he lay back down.

            “So is he okay?” Mikey asked, his eyes following the movement of the weight bar.

            “Would you be?” Leo countered.

            Looking down at Leo’s face, Mikey tried to read his emotions, but Leo was carefully hiding them.

            “No,” Mikey answered carefully, “but then Raph wouldn’t have done that to me.”

            “He picked on Don for a reason,” Leo said, racking the bar with a clang.

            “We’ve all been out alone at different times since he left,” Mikey said.  “He knows us, knows where we go, what we do.  He was stalking Don and you know it.”

            “Why?” Leo asked as he sat up.  “Why would he do that?  He’s quite capable of taking care of his own urges.  If Raph just wanted to be with Don because he needed a connection to his family, he would have spent time with him; he would have talked to Don.”

            Mikey snorted.  “You know the answer to that question already.  Raph wanted you to get mad at him.”

            “I was already mad at him,” Leo said bluntly.

            “Not this kind of mad,” Mikey said.  “You can hide behind that stoic mask of yours, but I know you Leo.  I can read your body language like a map.  Nothing gets you wound up tighter than seeing a family member hurt and we both know that Raph’s damn well aware of it.”

            “He should have taken it out on me,” Leo said, his lips twisting in a vicious snarl.

            Mikey’s heart skipped a beat and he swiftly moved around to sit next to Leo.  “I’m mad too, Leo,” Mikey said, watching as Leo struggled to control his sudden flash of anger.  “But we have to think about this.  Raph knows how to yank your chain and if he just wanted to piss you off, he would have been waiting out there for _you_.”

            Leo took a deep breath and turned his head to look at Mikey.  “I thought about that.”

            Nodding, Mikey went on.  “He didn’t just want you to be mad; he wanted you to be furious.  He had to know what he did wouldn’t just anger you, it would make me mad too and it would upset Don to the point that the genius couldn’t think straight.”

            “He hasn’t murdered anyone,” Leo said, his eyes searching Mikey’s.

            Mikey blinked at the quick shift in conversation but he understood.  Leo gave him enough credit to know that Mikey had figured it out on his own.

            “For all of his big talk, he can’t actually do what he was advocating,” Mikey said.  “He’s taking baby steps, trying to work his way up to it.  We have to find a way to stop him before he goes that far.”

            “There’s more to it than Raph just wanting to find a way to become a cold blooded killer,” Leo said softly.

            “More . . . .”  Mikey frowned, working out in his head what other ulterior motive Raph might possibly have.

            “Maybe he’s trying to prove his point,” Leo said, watching Mikey’s expression closely.

            The idea that was running through Leo’s mind hit Mikey like a ton of bricks and his face showed it.  Leo was nodding even before Mikey responded.

            “That’s messed up,” Mikey finally said.  “Does he think that if we understand him we’ll agree with him?”

            “Could you ever be pushed into doing something your personal moral code is opposed to?” Leo asked, countering his brother’s question with one of his own.

            “In the heat of a fight or if I’m trying to save my family, maybe,” Mikey answered.  “There’s no way that Raph could provoke me into doing something like that.”

            “It’s possible he thinks he can,” Leo said.  “He could very well believe that the only way he can come home now is if we’ve been convinced that his point of view is justified.”

            “How?  By making us want smash his face in?” Mikey asked.  “Just because I want to right now doesn’t mean I’d actually do it.”

            “Raph has to learn that his feelings can’t be allowed to control his actions,” Leo said.  “We think and then we act.  Raph doesn’t; he _reacts_.    This whole thing with wanting to take a proactive stance and become a vigilante is reactionary but Raph can’t see that.”

            “He hasn’t murdered anyone,” Mikey said, repeating Leo’s words from earlier.

            “Yet,” Leo said.  “We have to stop this headlong rush of his before he takes another misstep.  I know Master Splinter thought that we could just wait Raph out, but that isn’t going to work.”

            “Does that mean we’re going to start looking for him?” Mikey asked.

            Leo’s lip twitched upwards, though he didn’t feel very humorous.  “I don’t think we’ll have to search very hard.”

            “Nah, probably not,” Mikey said.  “He did that to Donny so that we would try to find him.”

            “Raphael is not the lone wolf that he likes to think he is,” Leo pointed out.

            “Alpha dude wants his wolf pack backing him up again,” Mikey said jokingly.

            “Thanks for helping me to think this through,” Leo murmured warmly.  “We can’t let Master Splinter know what Raph did to Don or what we think he’s trying to do to us.”

            “Master Splinter would go out and find him,” Mikey said.  “Raph won’t admit he was wrong and they’d end up having a worse fight; maybe even the kind where Raph would never be allowed to come home.”

            “We have to avoid ultimatums,” Leo said, hoping he could actually control himself enough around Raph to do what he was advocating.

            “Easier said than done, right Leo?” Mikey asked with a grin.

            Leo chuckled lightly, grabbing Mikey’s hand and giving it a squeeze.  “You really do know me.”

            Mikey returned the squeeze as he said, “Yeah, I do.”

            There was a smile still lingering on Leo’s lips as he twisted his upper body towards Mikey, humming excitedly as the younger turtle came forward to meet him.  Mouths locked together hungrily, opening quickly so that their tongues could touch and explore.

            Leo craved physical contact, a fact that only his brothers knew about him.  He rarely slept alone because of it and Mikey knew that Leo was feeling Raph’s loss keenly.

            A churr curled up from Leo’s throat and he grasped Mikey’s shoulders, pressing further into the kiss.  Mikey wrapped an arm around Leo’s carapace in response, his other hand drifting along Leo’s exposed side as he stroked the skin there lovingly.

            Mikey pulled away from the kiss after several moments, tipping even further back as Leo attempted to latch onto his neck.

            “Maybe Don shouldn’t wake up alone,” Mikey said softly.

            With a long shuddering inhale, Leo nodded.  “I’ll go lie down with him,” he said, gathering his self-control.  “You’re a little bit irresistible, Michelangelo.”

            “Yeah, I know,” Mikey said with a laugh, standing up and pulling Leo to his feet.

            “And modest too,” Leo added.

            “Sweet talk isn’t going to get me to stay,” Mikey said as he headed towards the door.

            Leo’s brow lifted quizzically.  “Where do you think you’re going?”

            Mikey stopped at the doorway and glanced back.  “We’re out of milk, remember?  I need to grab a couple of other things too or we aren’t going to have anything to eat in the morning.  I already called in the order, so I’ll only be gone as long as it takes to get to the bodega and back again.”

            “Don’t dally,” Leo said.  “Straight there and back.  I’ll leave Don’s door open so I can listen for you, and I’ll have my shell cell right next to me.”

            “Dude, nobody says ‘dally’ anymore,” Mikey told him, laughing all of the way out of the lair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Mikey rode his skateboard through the tunnels, arriving at his destination fairly quickly.  There was a manhole which led directly into the alley behind the bodega where they shopped, and Mikey climbed the ladder, shifting the cover enough to peek through.

            Once he verified that all was clear, he shoved the heavy cover aside and jumped through the opening.  Going directly to the small metal storage bin that stood next to the bodega’s back door, Mikey lifted the hinged top and glanced inside.

            Two large plastic bags were sitting in the bottom and Mikey swiftly checked the contents, assuring himself that his grocery order was complete.  With a satisfied sigh, he lifted them out, draping the handles across one forearm as he slid an envelope containing payment under the door.

            Popping back into the manhole, Mikey pulled the top back on and then leaped nimbly down to the ground below.

            He’d taken a couple of steps before Mikey realized that his skateboard wasn’t where he’d left it.  Puzzled, Mikey in a circle trying to find where it had gone.

            A half second later his eyes landed on the skateboard, only it was no longer on the tunnel floor.

            Leaning against a nearby wall, Raphael balanced Mikey’s skateboard on one finger.

            Grinning roguishly, Raph asked, “’Sup bro’?”

TBC……………….


	4. Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 3,946  
> Rated: R TCest, adult concepts and situations, violence, attempted non-con  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?  
> Pairing: Raph/Mikey, Leo/Mikey, Don/Mikey

            Mikey was surprised to find that his heart had begun beating wildly in his chest.  He’d never in his life been afraid of his own brother before, but right now Mikey had no idea what Raph was capable of.

            “You better not try to do to me what you did to Donny,” Mikey said, keeping his voice level.  “I’ll kick your butt up between your ears if you do.”

            “That’s a shell of a way ta greet your brother,” Raph said pushing away from the wall and catching Mikey’s skateboard in one hand.

            “You’re lucky I said anything at all,” Mikey replied coolly.  “I should just leave.”

            With a chuckle, Raph reached up and snapped a wheel off Mikey’s skateboard.  “Oops, looks like your ride’s damaged.”

            Mikey mentally counted to ten, knowing that Raph was attempting to provoke him.

            “Trying to prove that you’re a real jerk, Raphie?” Mikey said, purposely using a diminutive that Raph had chosen for himself when he was young and no longer cared for.

            Raph’s cocky grin slipped a little, telling Mikey he’d struck a nerve.  It only lasted a split second before his brother pushed the slight aside.

            “Speaking of Donny,” Raph drawled, his eyes burning into Mikey’s, “how’s he walking today?  Getting the high, hard one must have left him pretty sore.”

            Mikey shrugged nonchalantly.  If Raph wanted to play a game with hurtful words, Mikey would show him how it was done.

            “He said you’ve been better,” Mikey told him.  “You having a problem with little Raphie?  Not getting enough vitamins in your feed?”

            Raph tossed his head back and laughed before dropping the skateboard and squaring off with Mikey.           

            “Maybe he’s really hungry for you,” Raph said lowly.  “Don was just an appetizer.”

            “A month’s a long time bro’.  I’m not into you anymore,” Mikey said, careful to keep his eyes on Raph even as he turned slightly to the side, bracing himself.

            “Maybe I ain’t worried about that either,” Raph said, his eyes sliding over Mikey’s body.

            “Who is it you’re trying to convince, me or you?” Mikey asked.  “You trying to talk yourself into taking the suit of honor off?”

            “Ya’ think ya’ got it all figured out, don’t ya’ Mikey?”  Raph back foot shifted, digging into the hard packed earthen floor.

            Mikey kept his eyes on Raph’s, his peripheral vision taking in his brother’s movements.

            “I think you got into an argument with sensei and stomped off so you could show him how grown up you are,” Mikey said.  “You’re too damn stubborn to come home with your tail tucked and admit that for all your big talk you can’t snatch someone up and kill them.  You know that Master Splinter is right; that isn’t justice no matter what they’ve done in the past and killing them only turns you into a murderer.”

            Raph’s mouth tightened at the corners as he forced the grin to remain on his face.  “There’s only one that really needs killing and that’s supposed ta be Leo’s job.”

            “So how is abusing your own family supposed to accomplish that?” Mikey asked.  He was feeling the weight of the groceries on his arm but didn’t dare move to set them down.

            “Those bags getting heavy?” Raph asked.

            Mikey’s eyes narrowed.  Raph was too good a fighter and too brash not to have attacked already.  He was waiting for Mikey to feel the strain of a gallon of milk and other assorted items so he could take advantage of that weakness.

            Deliberately, Mikey lowered his arm and let the bags crash to the ground, the impact splitting open the milk.  His eyes stayed glued on Raph’s even as the cold liquid splashed against his legs.

            “You didn’t answer my question,” Mikey said.  “Or don’t you know the answer?  Getting frustrated ‘cause you aren’t good enough to take out the big fish by yourself?”

            Raph’s canines showed as a low growl rumbled up from his chest.  “Ya’ always did have a talent for talking someone ta sleep.”

            Mikey chuckled.  “That didn’t sound like a snore,” he said.  “What’s the matter bro’, truth hurt?  Am I getting to you?  You never could beat me when it counts.  I’ve got a trophy that proves it.”

            Raph’s lunge wasn’t unexpected.  Mikey watched him come in, hands at shoulder height as he tried to use his weight advantage to grapple with his younger brother.

            Stepping back quickly, Mikey pivoted to Raph’s left, turning to deliver a brutal downward punch into his brother’s ribcage.

            With a grunt, Raph turned, swinging a wicked backhand at Mikey’s head.  Mikey pulled his head back to dodge the blow and then ducked to the side to avoid Raph’s uppercut.

            Mikey continued to back away, using his forearms to block Raph’s punches.  Spotting an opening, Mikey snapped his fist forward, sliding it between Raph’s arms and striking his brother on the pressure point between shoulder and chest.

            The hit was hard enough to send Raph backwards a few steps.  Mikey grinned at him, knowing that would further infuriate his brother.

            “So slow, Raphie,” Mikey taunted.  “You should stick to fighting Purple Dragons and little girls.”

            Raph’s snarl came a split second before he dove at Mikey.  The first wild swing was just shy of Mikey’s chin as the younger turtle turned his head aside.  When Raph followed up with a second punch, Mikey anticipated the move, taking a step forward in order to shove Raph’s arm aside.  Forcing Raph’s arm down, Mikey’s trapped it beneath his and twisted into Raph’s body, pulling Raph off balance and into a hip throw.

            Dust flew up as Raph hit the ground hard but he quickly rolled onto his shoulders to avoid Mikey’s follow through punch.  As he pushed off from the ground, Raph scooped up a handful of dirt and threw it directly into Mikey’s eyes.

            “Shell!” Mikey shouted, stumbling backwards blindly.

            Pawing at his eyes with one hand, Mikey swept out with the other, trying to keep Raph off of him.  Mikey heard the sound of Raph’s feet as his brother bore down on him and he tried to brace himself for a blow, but Raph caught Mikey around the middle and drove him to the ground.

            Pulling his hand away from his eyes, Mikey shoved his palm beneath Raph’s chin and began pushing his older brother’s head back.  Blinking frantically as he tried to clear his vision, all Mikey could see was a blur of green and red hovering above him.

            Nearly blinded by the dirt in his eyes, Mikey had no warning of the next blow until Raph’s fist connected with his cheek.  The punch rocked Mikey’s head to the side, the hit hard enough to split Mikey’s bottom lip.

            Raph hadn’t pulled that punch the way they normally did in training sessions and Mikey quickly remembered his earlier fear.  Right then he knew he would have to beat Raph into unconsciousness or get away from him.

            The only reason Mikey’s face wasn’t smashed was because Raph couldn’t get a clear view of his target with his head being shoved back.  Reaching up, Raph grabbed Mikey’s wrist and wrenched his younger brother’s hand away.

            Mikey dug his heels into the ground and slammed his fist into Raph’s unprotected side as forcefully as possible.  Just as he shoved himself out from under Raph, his brother swung a solid right at his face, grazing Mikey’s temple hard enough to make him see stars.

            Raph’s labored breathing told Mikey that his punch had probably bruised a rib or two.  Hoping that would slow Raph down a little, Mikey pushed himself onto one knee, trying to gain his feet before his brother attacked again.

            Hearing something come whistling towards him, Mikey grabbed for his nunchuck with one hand while the other lifted to protect his head.  His blurry vision registered the shape of his skateboard just before it broke into several pieces across his forearm.

            Mikey cried out as pain flashed through his entire arm and then he flung himself backwards.  He could hear Raph shuffling towards him as Mikey clawed at the wall, using it to help him stand. 

            With his right arm hanging uselessly at his side, Mikey wrapped his hand around his nunchucks but before he could pull his weapon, Raph slammed into him.

            Raph pressed an arm across Mikey’s throat, shoving his plastron against Mikey’s in order to pin his brother.  Hot breath blew across Mikey’s face as Raph gripped his younger brother’s wrist, keeping Mikey from drawing his weapon.

            Mikey felt Raph’s knee working its way between his legs but when he tried to kick Raph, his brother applied more pressure to his neck.  Gasping for air, his eyes stinging and mostly blind, Mikey frantically tried to find a way to escape being raped by his own brother.

            “I enjoyed that fight; it worked up an appetite,” Raph said, his voice husky.  “Winner takes all and even though I don’t get ta set my trophy on top of the TV, I’m gonna enjoy every inch of it.”

            Feeling as though he was about to black out, Mikey suddenly let his legs go slack.  With a satisfied grunt, Raph shifted his hips and worked his body into the offered space.

            “Nice of ya’ ta know when ta give up,” Raph told him.

            Releasing Mikey’s arm, Raph spit into his hand and then slid it between Mikey’s legs.  As one wet digit began to press against Mikey’s opening, the younger turtle slipped his nunchuck from his belt.

            With as much power as he could muster, Mikey drove the wooden sticks into Raph’s injured ribs as hard as he could.

            Raph released his hold on Mikey as he led out a loud grunt of pain and grabbed his injured side.  Free of Raph’s strangle hold, Mikey staggered away from him, using the wall to guide him.

            “Ya’ little fuckin’ prick!” Raph yelled, glaring at his brother.

            “Is this how you’re fighting now?” Mikey shouted back.  “Every dirty trick in the book against your own brothers?  Don’t you ever try to take me by force again; in fact, don’t ever come near me again!”

            “I’m not finished with ya’!” Raph growled, lurching forward while still grasping his side.

            “I hope I broke your ribs!” Mikey choked out as he began spinning his nunchucks.

            The shrill call of the shell cell broke into their shouting match.  Mikey ignored it; his right arm was still numb and he wasn’t relinquishing his weapon while Raph was anywhere close to him.

            “Leo’s getting worried,” Raph sneered.

            “He and Don are probably following my signal,” Mikey told him.  “They’re both gonna love finding you here, especially all busted up like that.”

            He could barely see Raph’s outline as his brother took his hand from his side and straightened up.

            “Much as I’d love ta see big brother right now, this ain’t the time,” Raph said, his tone calculating.  “Have fun explaining how ya’ got your ass kicked.”

            “Next time we meet I’m gonna show you that two can fight dirty,” Mikey snapped.

            Raph chuckled lightly.  “Lookin’ forward ta it,” he said before turning and jogging away from his brother.

            Listening for Raph’s receding footsteps, Mikey slowly backed down the tunnel.  He did not trust that Raph wouldn’t sneak up on him from behind and he wasn’t taking any chances.

            Groaning, Mikey tried to decide what was worse; the dull throbbing ache shooting through his useless arm, the sharp pain in his eyes, or the sting of his split lip and the tear he’d just discovered on the inside of his mouth.

            Spitting blood, Mikey kept moving, inwardly cursing the animal his brother Raphael appeared to be turning into.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            “Where are you going?”

            Leo looked up at the sound of Don’s voice.  His brother was standing on the ledge outside of his bedroom, staring down at his oldest brother who had been on the verge of leaving the lair.

            The tremor in Don’s voice was obvious.  Leo debated whether to tell him a lie, but Don’s wide eyes and worried expression made him decide otherwise.

            “Mikey went to the bodega for milk an hour ago,” Leo said.  “He’s not back and he’s not answering his shell cell.”

            “You let him go alone?”  Don’s tone told of his surprise and anxiety.

            Not bothering with the stairs, Don leaped to the floor below, sliding his bo staff into place on his back.

            “I can’t locate his tracking signal,” Leo said, holding his shell cell out towards Don.  “I was going to head towards the bodega and see if I could find him along the way.”

            “The tracker on his phone broke two weeks ago,” Don said.  “I told him to take the extra one so I could fix his.  Obviously he didn’t listen.”

            “You don’t have to go with me,” Leo said.  “You could stay here in case he comes back while I’m out searching.”

            “Afraid of what I’ll do if we run into Raph?” Don asked with a small smile.  “If you’ll hold him down so I can spank him I’d feel a whole lot better.”

            Leaving through the tunnel exit, Leo’s single laugh was dark.  “He certainly deserves a spanking,” he agreed.  As an afterthought, he added, “So do I for letting Mikey out by himself.”

            They stopped talking then, both absorbing the worry that had been hovering over them.  By unspoken agreement, the brothers broke into a fast jog, suddenly feeling the need to hurry.

            Before long a low groan caught their attention and rounding a corner, they spotted Mikey stumbling towards them.  His right arm was hanging unnaturally by his side, his eyes were closed and watering fiercely and dried blood coated his chin and upper plastron.

            “Mikey!” Don exclaimed, dashing towards his brother.

            “What happened?” Leo asked, his swords out as he stepped past his youngest brother and surveyed the tunnel behind Mikey.

            “Raph,” Mikey muttered, trying not to move his mouth any more than he had to.  He could feel his lip swelling, but that was a minor annoyance compared to the sharp pain pricking at his eyeballs.

            “He attacked you?”  Leo turned to stare at Mikey incredulously.

            “In the tunnel.  I lost the milk,” Mikey answered, finding that to somehow be important.

            “What’s wrong with your eyes?” Don asked, sliding an arm beneath Mikey’s uninjured one and guiding him back towards the lair.

            “Raph threw dirt in them,” Mikey said.  “He busted my skateboard by hitting my arm with it.”

            “He did what?”  Leo’s voice lifted and echoed through the tunnel, the underlying anger in his tone reverberating against the walls.

            “Dirty,” Mikey murmured.  “He’s fighting dirty.”

            Mikey decided not to tell his brothers what else Raph tried to do because he didn’t want Leo to go chasing after Raph while in a volatile emotional state.  Don seemed to sense Mikey’s fear, looking past Mikey’s shoulder to catch his oldest brother’s eye.

            “Help me get him to the infirmary,” Don pleaded.  “I’ve got to flush his eyes quickly and check to see how much damage was done.”

            “I haven’t been rubbing at them,” Mikey said proudly.  “I knew better than that.”

            Leo hesitated for just a moment, torn between going after Raph and aiding his brothers.  The look on Don’s face made the decision for him and he ran ahead to open the entrance to the lair.

            Once in the infirmary, Don led Mikey straight to the sink and had him bend over it.  While Don poured clean water into an eye cup, Mikey filled his palm with the cool liquid and bathed his mouth.

            Removing Mikey’s mask carefully, Don began rinsing his brother’s eyes.  There was a tingling sensation starting to crawl through Mikey’s arm but he didn’t try moving it, choosing to deal with one problem at a time.

            When he felt as though he’d cleansed Mikey’s eyes enough, Don had him sit in a chair near his desk.  The stinging pain was still there and Mikey kept his eyes closed because that seemed to hurt a little less.

            Don rolled his slit lamp in front of Mikey and examined each of his brother’s eyes.  Although he wasn’t happy with what he saw, he was relieved.

            “Your corneas are slightly scratched,” Don pronounced as he moved the biomicroscope aside.  “It’s painful but it will heal.  Your mask helped protect your eyes from most of the dirt.  I need to put an ointment in your eyes to keep an infection from setting in and then you’ll have to wear a patch over both eyes for a couple of days.  The ointment has a numbing agent in it to help get rid of the sting.”

            “Great,” Mikey muttered.  “My arm is all tingly but it’s still mostly numb.”

            “I’ll look at it when I finish with your eyes,” Don said.

            Don proceeded to take care of Mikey’s eyes, glancing from time to time in Leo’s direction.  His oldest brother stood near the door as he watched them, arms crossed over his plastron and a grim expression on his face.

            When the sound of the television coming on drew Leo’s attention for a moment, Don leaned close to Mikey and whispered, “Did Raph do anything else to you?”

            Mikey’s heart jumped in his chest as he quickly answered, “No.”

            “Did he try to?” Leo asked, suddenly next to them though neither had heard his approach.

            Mikey thought for a second about the best way to answer that, knowing that Leo could tell if he wasn’t being truthful.

            “He acted like he did,” Mikey said wincing as Don began to examine his arm.  He knew he didn’t have to elaborate on that part because both of his brothers would understand.  “I think he let me punch him in the ribs so that I could get away.  He wanted me to come home battered so you guys would know he’s stalking us.”

            Leo’s hand on his cheek startled Mikey.  From the tone of their conversation, Mikey expected Leo to be thoroughly pissed, but the touch was gentle; caring.

            “I should have known he would do that,” Leo whispered.  “I’m so sorry, Mikey.”

            “Leo, don’t,” Mikey said, gripping his brother’s arm lightly with his good hand.  “It isn’t your fault that Raph’s gone off the deep end.  Blaming yourself for not being able to read his mind is goofy.  I’d rather you spent the time thinking of a productive way to stop him.”

            “We aren’t stooping to his level no matter what he tries,” Don said firmly, surprising both his brothers.

            “Donny, what are you . . . ?”  Leo began.

            “Thanks for trying to shield me,” Don said before Leo could finish.  “And thanks for letting me have the illusion for a little while that Raph didn’t have an ulterior motive for what he did.  You both had to know I’d eventually figure it out.”

            Leo removed his hand from Mikey’s face and took a step back, separating himself from his brothers.

            “He’s trying to get at me through you two,” Leo said, his tone hard.  “His fight is with me; he’s angry at me.”

            “Raph’s mad at Master Splinter,” Mikey said, correcting Leo.  “You weren’t involved in their argument except when Raph dragged you into it.”

            “I’m still the leader,” Leo said, biting the words.  “Sensei expects me to handle my team.”

            “Don . . . .” Mikey’s pleading tone told his smart brother what he needed to do.

            Donatello was moving before Mikey even finished saying his name.  Catching hold of Leo’s shoulders, Don pressed himself against his older brother, his grip tight so that Leo couldn’t try to alienate himself again.

            “Having a team means you delegate,” Don told him.  “You come up with the plans, we help you make them work.  Just because Raph has gone lone wolf doesn’t mean you have to do the same just to rein him in.”

            Leo took a shuddering breath, Don’s closeness helping him control his anger.  When Don saw his brother’s eyes dilate just a little, he smiled and touched his lips to Leo’s.

            Though not passionate, the kiss lingered, more as a way of passing energy between the two than anything else.  Their mouths separated when Mikey cleared his throat.

            “Hey doc, there’s still a patient in the room,” Mikey said.

            Don turned in Mikey’s direction but retained a light hold on one of Leo’s shoulders.  “Your arm isn’t broken, Mikey.  There’s a little nerve damage, but that tingling sensation indicates the feeling is coming back, so I don’t believe it’s anything permanent.  I’ll put your arm in a sling until the numbness wears off so you don’t accidently bang it against things.”

            “We’re still out of milk and a bunch of other stuff,” Mikey huffed.  “I had two bags of groceries that Raph ruined.”

            “I’ll call April tomorrow and ask her to bring us some provisions,” Leo said.  “She and Casey should be warned about Raph’s behavior.”

            Don had released Leo in order to fetch a sling from his medical cabinet and his brother’s words startled him. 

            “I hadn’t thought of that,” Don admitted.  “Would he really go so far as to attack his best friends?”

            “We’ll institute preventative measures so we don’t have to worry about that,” Leo said, stepping close to Mikey again and resting his palms on his brother’s thighs.

            Don came up next to them and fitted Mikey with the sling, gently easing his injured arm into it.  “I’m deeply hurt that Raph would do something like this just to prove a point,” he said softly.  “I don’t think I can even look at him anymore.”

            “When my eyes heal up, I can sure look at him,” Mikey said grimly.  “I wanna see his face when I clobber him.”

            “A vendetta is no better than an ultimatum,” Leo said quietly.

            “I wasn’t gonna call it that,” Mikey responded, managing a grin.  “I was thinking more along the lines of teaching him a lesson.”

            “Can that lip handle a kiss?” Leo asked.

            “Yeah, if you kiss the undamaged half,” Mikey told him.

            Leo chuckled and leaned in, placing a gentle yet unhurried kiss to Mikey’s mouth.

            “How about a sedative, Mikey?” Don asked when Leo pulled away.  “Between the arm and your eyes, it might be hard to sleep without one.”

            “No way dude,” Mikey said, shaking his head emphatically.  “What if Raph comes home while I’m out of it?  I don’t want to be groggy if you guys need me.”

            “He wouldn’t . . . he couldn’t . . . .” Don stammered.

            “You should change the security codes,” Leo instructed and then sighed loudly.  “I think it’s time I tell Master Splinter what’s been happening.  He needs to know.  He’ll ask once he sees Mikey’s injuries anyway.”

            “Not about me, please,” Don pleaded.

            “I won’t go into details,” Leo promised.  “I’ll just say he treated you rudely.”

            Patting Mikey’s thighs lightly, Leo turned and left the infirmary.

            “I wonder where he is right now,” Mikey said in a low voice after he heard Leo leave.

            “Not here,” Don said firmly.  “Let Leo and Master Splinter worry about it; you need some rest.”

            Taking his brother’s arm, Don led Mikey out of the room and onto the stairs.

            “I’m not sleeping in the infirmary?” Mikey asked.

            “My room,” Don answered.  “I can make sure you don’t mess with those bandages and lead you anywhere you need to go.  Since you don’t want a sedative, I’ll have to resort to other measures to make you sleepy.”

            For the first time that night, Mike’s smile was genuine.

TBC……………..


	5. Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 4,055  
> Rated: NC-17 TCest, adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?  
> Pairings: Leo/Don, mention of Don/Mikey

            Leonardo could see his father’s furry head above the back of the couch as he made his way towards the viewing space.  Only one television in the array was alive at the moment; a nightly newscast that his father was watching.

            Stepping around the couch, Leo took a seat on the chair nearest his father and waited for a commercial to interrupt the broadcast.  Sensing his son’s desire for his attention, Master Splinter lifted the remote and muted the sound from the TV.

            “Yes my son?” Master Splinter asked, giving Leo an opening to speak.

            “Father, I need to talk to you about Raphael,” Leo said, deciding that the direct approach was best.

            “You have news of your brother?”  Master Splinter’s eyes searched his eldest son’s face anxiously.

            Leo’s heart skipped a beat.  He knew that his father was worried about Raph.  Leo had believed that Master Splinter was keeping track of his runaway son through his meditation, but the way his father had asked that question made Leo wonder if that wasn’t true.

            “He found Donny at the junkyard last night,” Leo said, avoiding the use of the word ‘stalking’.

            “Then he is well?” Master Splinter asked quickly.

            Leo nodded and flicked a tongue over his bottom lip.  This was going to be more difficult than he’d imagined.

            “He has . . . changed,” Leo said.  “Raph has gotten hard.  His interaction with Don was crude and uncaring and he refused to explain himself or even talk about what he’s been doing.  Don was hurt by their encounter.”

            He paused and Master Splinter looked at him knowingly.  “There is more.”

            “Mikey went out a little while ago to pick up some groceries,” Leo said.  “When he started back home he discovered that Raph was waiting for him.  Raph provoked a fight and attacked Mikey.”

            Master Splinter immediately straightened from his relaxed position.  “Is Michelangelo injured?”

            “Yes,” Leo answered flatly, seeing no point in whitewashing the incident.  “Mikey was holding his own until Raph threw dirt in his eyes and broke his skateboard over his arm.  His corneas are scratched and his eyes have to remain bandaged for a couple of days, but Don assured us there is no permanent damage.  Mikey’s arm isn’t broken, but it will be numb for several hours.  Don tucked him into bed and is staying with him to make sure he rests.”

            Leo watched the expression on Master Splinter’s face become grim.  “To what degree have Raphael’s actions affected you?” he asked.

            “I’ll admit that I’m angry,” Leo told him.  “Behaving with reckless disregard for himself and his family is one thing; purposely turning on them is another.”

            “He set out to become a hunter,” Master Splinter said.  “I have not interfered with his choice to prove something to himself.  I believed that once Raphael had learned the hard way that this path was incorrect, he would return.  Instead he has chosen to alter that path even further.”

            “I have to stop him before he makes a misstep from which he can’t return,” Leo said emphatically.  “Both Don and Mikey distrust him now and that means our team is minus one member.  In order to repair things, Raph has to come to his senses and make an effort to right his wrongs.”

            “How do you propose to bring him to his senses?  His actions have been deliberate; he has decided to learn to behave dishonorably the same way he learned morality, by practicing.  Raphael has made a conscious choice of rebellion but he still desires that someone from his family side with him,” Master Splinter said.

            Leo knew his father wouldn’t need an outline to understand what Raph was doing, but he had hoped that Master Splinter could offer him something definitive by way of a solution.  Perhaps for once the strict discipline of Bushido did not provide the answers to a father with a delinquent child.

            “Is it possible he thinks that I can be angered enough to seek vengeance for his actions against Don and Mikey?” Leo asked, verbalizing what he and Mikey had postulated.  “Could Raph want me to hunt him down and strike at him so that he can say ‘I told you so, anyone can be provoked to take proactive steps and anyone can deserve to be stopped before they go on to hurt someone else’?”

            Master Splinter nodded, his eyes narrowing.  “Raphael knows you have a temper, my son,” he said.  “You are the clan leader and it is your responsibility to safeguard your team.  His step is bold and inflammatory and might well work if he can make you believe that the use of extreme force _is_ the only way to stop him.”

            “In which case he could demand that I enact upon our enemies what I’ve willingly chosen to do against a member of my family,” Leo said carefully.

            “It is a fine line that you must walk,” Master Splinter said.  “As with any battle, you must plan your strategy carefully.  Use what you know of Raphael’s character to find a way to thwart him and to show him that virtue wields a large enough sword to satisfy his craving for justice.”

            “Yes father,” Leo said, unsure how he would go about pulling off that feat.

            Master Splinter stopped him from rising by leaning forward and placing a hand atop one of Leo’s.  “I have faith in your ability to bring a changed Raphael home,” Master Splinter said.  “You are the leader for a reason, Leonardo.  I am here to guide you, but ultimately this team is yours and Raphael cannot continue to behave as though he has no family.”

            “I will find a way,” Leo said with more assurance than he actually felt.

            After studying Leo’s face for a moment, Master Splinter sat back and asked, “Why did you not come to me after Raphael’s initial encounter with Donatello?”

            “It was a delicate situation, sensei,” Leo said slowly.  “Donny didn’t want to share what had occurred but I was awake when he came home so he couldn’t hide it from me.  Mikey ferreted it out in his usual way and he and I talked about it outside of Don’s hearing.  We didn’t want to tell you because we were afraid that you’d be upset enough to go looking for Raph and we agreed to do that ourselves.”

            “Did Raphael hurt his brother in some way?”  Master Splinter’s eyes were unblinking as he watched Leo.

            “There was no physical damage, father,” Leo said, measuring his words.  “Don’s spirit was wounded and the interaction has left him emotionally vulnerable.”

            “Such a wound should not be taken lightly,” Master Splinter said wisely.  “Michelangelo’s physical injuries will heal, but emotional scars are more painful and often reopen for the slightest of reasons.  You must have thought the incident abhorrent to believe that it would cause me to seek retribution.  Should I ask Donatello if he requires my counsel?”

            “No father,” Leo answered quickly.  “Donatello is extremely embarrassed and humiliated by what occurred but he is talking about it to Mikey and I.  He does not wish to share the event with anyone else because it involves that aspect of our lives that we promised you would remain private amongst ourselves.”

            Master Splinter nodded, having deduced that for himself.  “Very well.  I expect that you will keep me apprised of the situation from this point forward.  As your sensei, it is my duty to allow you and your team to make and resolve your own mistakes.  As your father, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of my children.  Knowledge will guide me to know when one must be forsaken in place of the other.”

            “Hai sensei,” Leo said, taking that as a dismissal.

            He stood up and bowed to his father before leaving.  Leo had seen his brother’s ascend the stairs while he was waiting to gain Master Splinter’s attention and guessed that they had probably gone into Don’s room.  Taking the stairs two at a time, he saw that Don’s door was the only one that was closed.

            Don’s eyes opened when the creaking sound made by the door alerted him.  He didn’t move, watching as Leo approached and knelt next to the bed.

            “If you would oil that door I wouldn’t wake you when I come in,” Leo whispered.

            “I don’t oil that door because I like to know when someone comes in,” Don whispered back.

            Leo glanced over the genius’ shoulder and saw that Mikey was sound asleep.

            “Did it take much to make him sleep?” Leo asked with a smile.

            Don returned the smile.  “Nope.  Just a blow job and he was out like a light.  He was pretty tired to start with.”

            “Did that leave you anxious?” Leo asked knowingly.

            “I figured I’d wait for you,” Don said.  “How’d the conversation with Master Splinter go?”

            Leo took a deep breath and exhaled.  “About as expected.  Mikey and I were a little afraid he’d want to go after Raph himself, but he’s decided to leave it up to me to come up with a plan to fix this problem.”

            Don knew that Leo and Mikey had no such conversation after Mikey’s fight with Raph, so that must have happened after the junkyard incident.

            “Does Master Splinter know what happened between Raph and me?” Don asked anxiously.

            Leo tenderly stroked a finger along Don’s jawline.  “I think he does; I think he guessed,” Leo whispered softly.  “He won’t ask you about it.  He understands that’s for us to work through.”

            “What are you going to do about Raph?” Don asked, searching Leo’s eyes.

            “Exactly what Master Splinter suggested,” Leo said.  “Think about what I know of Raph’s character and come up with plan to straighten him out.”

            “Easier said than done,” Don murmured.

            Leo’s finger trailed across Don’s lips.  “It wasn’t that easy to say either,” he admitted with a light chuckle.

            Don’s eyelids lowered slightly and he opened his mouth in order to lightly run his tongue across the tip of Leo’s finger.  “Don’t wake Mikey,” he warned in a whisper.

            “So, are you glued to that bed?” Leo asked, his voice dropping an octave.  “I’m not going to fit up there with a sleeping Michelangelo and he’s in no shape for a threesome.”

            In answer, Don grabbed a couple of pillows and tossed them onto the floor mat.  Leo scooted back and began removing his gear, setting it carefully aside as Don rolled over the edge of the bed and crawled towards him.

            “How quiet can you be?” Leo asked with a lustful smirk.

            “Let’s experiment and find out,” Don answered, rising up on his knees to he could press his body against his brother’s.

            Arms quickly surrounding each other, their mouths met gently at first, then with increasing passion.  Tongues touched, retreated, and touched again, their teeth scraping softly together as lips undulated and gave way to advancing heat.

            Don’s knees spread and he inched forward, pushing his groin against Leo’s thigh as he captured his brother’s leg between his own.  In response, Leo leaned closer, bringing his free leg up as leverage to force Don onto his carapace.

            Breaking their kiss with a gasp, Leo looked deeply into Don’s chocolate orbs, seeing a mirror image of his own desire reflected in them.

            “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Leo asked quietly.

            “Yes,” Don whispered.  “I need it.  I need the feeling of you inside of me, cleansing me.  I need the memory of our love making in my head so the other thing will fade away.”

            “I’ll do anything you need Donny,” Leo husked against his brother’s neck, nipping at the olive green skin.  “Whatever you ask for I’ll give you.  Always.”

            “I’m so hard,” Don whimpered, sending an excited chill into Leo’s core.

            Reaching between them, Leo coaxed Don’s erection into the open.  Dragging his closed hand from base to tip, Leo thumbed the head, eliciting a muted churr from his brother.

            “Shhh,” Leo breathed into Don’s ear as he slowly stroked his brother’s dick.

            Don’s pulse beat against Leo’s mouth as the older turtle slid his tongue along his brother’s skin.  In answer, Don shifted his leg so that he could rub it against Leo’s tail.

            Pushing his open mouth atop Don’s, Leo buried his churr inside of his brother, letting it vibrate Don’s tongue.  Leo’s cock, fully stimulated and quite hard, dropped into the open and Leo swiftly caught it in the hand that was holding Don’s, pressing their penises together.

            Bracing himself on one outstretched arm, Leo watched as Don panted and writhed beneath him.  Leo pumped their organs in unison, the freely flowing pre-cum from both their erections slicking his palm and making a light squelching sound in the silence.

            Don suddenly opened his tightly shut eyes and nearly blinded Leo with his hunger.  “Please Leo,” he begged.  “Please.”

            Dipping forward, Leo lightly kissed Don’s lips.  “I have to prep you.”

            “N . . . no you don’t,” Don said, inhaling sharply.  “Mikey plugged me for . . . for you.”

            Eyes widening, Leo lifted himself onto his knees, quickly setting both of them between Don’s outstretched legs.  Reaching down, Leo’s fingers encountered the butt plug that Mikey had placed inside his brother earlier in the evening.  Very slowly, Leo worked it out of Don, noting happily that a large amount of lubricant had been used during insertion.

            Setting the plug aside, Leo pulled Don’s hips up to a better angle and carefully worked his pulsating cock into his brother. Don bit his lips to quiet the churr that threatened to escape, grunting when Leo began to thrust.  His own cock bobbed in reaction to the movement and Leo quickly caught hold of it again, jacking Don in a matching rhythm.

            Watching Donatello struggle to remain silent was one of the most erotic things Leo had ever seen.  The sight of his brother panting through flared nostrils, his strong teeth holding his lips closed, his eyes squeezed shut, and his brow creased in ecstasy brought Leo to the tipping point.

            A low growl rumbled up from Leo’s chest as he pounded into Don, feeling his brother jump as Leo touched his prostate.  A tiny squeak escaped Don’s throat when he suddenly ejaculated, his cock twitching in Leo’s grip as it spilled its load across Leo’s fist and onto Don’s plastron.

            The shaking form beneath him pulled Leo over into his own intensely satisfying orgasm.  Mouth open, Leo gasped silently, rocking into Don with short stabbing movements of his hips as he completely emptied himself.

            Remaining buried in his brother, Leo leaned over Don, bracing himself on his fists as he pressed a deep kiss to Don’s mouth.  A coppery taste told him that Don had bitten his lip a little too hard in his effort to remain silent and Leo gently licked the blood away, causing Don to shudder happily.

            Still sharing a fulfilling kiss with his brother, Don’s hand snaked under his bed and he extracted a couple of shop towels from the stack he kept there.  When Leo’s dwindling erection slipped out of Don’s body, he sat up and accepted one of the towels.

            After they had cleaned themselves, Leo crawled onto the bed to Mikey’s left, lying down on his side with his carapace against the wall.  Don sank into his original spot to Mikey’s right, careful to avoid his brother’s injured arm.

            Leo gently draped a protective arm across Mikey’s stomach, the movement drawing a light churr from his youngest brother, who slept deeply and peacefully.  Staring at Mikey’s bandage covered eyes, Leo felt a stabbing pain in his heart as he thought about how he should have gone with his brother instead of giving Raph an opportunity to attack Mikey.

            Don’s hand closed over Leo’s and drew his attention.  The expression on Don’s face was knowing and he shook his head once Leo’s eyes were on him.

            “He’s okay,” Don mouthed without making a sound.  “Stop that and go to sleep.”

            Leo nodded, smiling at Don before closing his eyes.  Marveling at his brother’s ability to both take and give comfort at the same time, Leo drifted off to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Morning practice involved a repetition of basic moves, things that they had learned when they were young.  Mikey’s arm was better but still sore, so Master Splinter had him sit and listen to his brother’s actions, calling out for them to freeze periodically so he could ask Mikey to tell him what Don and Leo were doing.

            It was a surprisingly interesting exercise and the time passed quickly.  When they were done, the three brothers collaborated on their grocery list while eating breakfast and then Leo placed a call to April.

            He was happy to hear that neither she nor Casey had heard from Raph and quickly explained what was happening, skimming over the details of Don’s encounter with his wayward brother.  April expressed shocked outrage at Raph’s treatment of Mikey and assured Leo that if Raph tried to contact her, she would immediately notify his brothers.

            “Tell me what you need in the way of provisions and I’ll get them right away,” April said upon hearing Leo’s request.

            “Donny said he’ll email the list to you,” Leo told her.  “Can you come to the garage during daylight to drop them off?  I don’t want Raph to know you’re actively helping us; maybe if he thinks you’re busy with your own life he won’t think to drag you into our fight.”

            “Is it really that bad?” April asked incredulously.

            “Yes it is,” Leo answered truthfully, knowing his ‘big sis’ would understand.  “Please don’t take this lightly April.  You’ve got to get Casey to stay inside until we resolve this problem.  Raphael is not good news to any of us right now.”

            “I’ll explain it to him but he’ll probably need to hear it from you again,” April said with a sigh.  “He hasn’t been very happy about Raph’s disappearing act.”

            “Bring him with you when you come by with the groceries,” Leo suggested.  “We’ll talk to him about the situation then.”

            The next few hours crawled by.  Don changed the dressings on Mikey’s eyes and encouraged the younger turtle to take a nap, settling him on the couch with the sounds of one of his favorite movies playing in the background.

            Don spent some time reprogramming the security and entry codes so that Raph couldn’t pay them an unexpected visit.  He and Leo discussed the move once more before they decided it was still the best plan.  If Raph had a change of heart and wanted to come home, he was simply going to have to call first.  It had been his choice to warp their trust and he’d just have to live with it.

            April and Casey arrived mid-afternoon, bearing with them quite a few more groceries than had been on Don’s list.  April quipped that they were guys and had forgotten a few major essentials and no one argued the point because she was probably correct.

            While she paid a suitable amount of attention to Mikey’s injuries, gushing over him and earning herself a front row seat to his Tony award winning performance of ‘poor, poor, pitiful me’, Don and Leo pulled Casey aside.  They carefully explained to him what Raph had done and his motivations, telling Raph’s best friend that as tempting as it would be to confront his pal, he had to leave this one strictly to family.

            The pair left after April cooked dinner for the family, spoiling Mikey terribly in the process.  When dinner was over, Master Splinter retired to the couch and his ‘shows’, while Leo and Don cleaned up the kitchen.

            While they worked, Leo asked Mikey to tell him every action and every word that he could remember about his fight with Raph.  He frequently stopped Mikey and had him go back to repeat something, analyzing every piece of it minutely.

            When he was done and Leo had stopped asking questions, Mikey had one of his own.  “Why’d you want to know his exact words and movements, bro’?”

            Leo turned from the sink and came over to lean against the doorframe opposite his youngest brother.  “I know Raph.  I know how he thinks, the way he feels things, what he likes and dislikes.  But this is new to me and I have to understand it, otherwise I can’t find a way to resolve his turmoil.”

            Don was straddling a chair, his arms draped along the back.  Rocking the chair on two legs, he asked, “Suppose you can’t come up with something?”

            Allowing a small yet confident smile to etch his lips, Leo said, “I don’t believe in a no win situation.  Right now our best bet is a good defense.  We’ve cut off his access to possible targets and we’ve ensured that he can’t approach us on our home ground.  We have to agree that none of us goes out alone, even if he tries to make contact through other means, like a phone call.  We must present a united front to Raph in order to keep him from advancing any more of his agenda.”

            “Even though we don’t actually know what that agenda is,” Don stated softly.

            Mikey touched the bandages over his eyes and said, “Well I’m not going anywhere alone for a while and one of you guys had better be within calling distance until I can see again.”

            In the moment of silence that followed they could hear the laugh track from a television show echoing through the lair.  Something was bothering Leo and it finally came to him what it was.

            “Mikey, when Raph told you that he wanted to see me, but that wasn’t the time, what do you think he meant?” Leo asked.

            “I didn’t think anything when he said it ‘cause I just wanted to get away from him,” Mikey admitted.  “Now I’m guessing he wanted to catch you alone?”

            “From the way you described his body language and tone, it sounds almost as if he had something else planned,” Leo said.

            “He already manipulated me and attacked Mikey,” Don said.  “He had to figure we’d warn April and Casey.  What else could he expect to do to provoke you?”

            Leo appeared deep in thought as he tried to work out an answer.  In the background the closing music of Master Splinter’s show played and then the news came on.

            _“Tonight’s top news is this breaking story,”_ the reporter announced in a suitably sepulchral tone.  _“Eyewitness reports of a vicious gang war have rocked the lower east side.  Live on the scene is our own Miranda Holliday.”_

            The brothers quickly spun around and approached the television, Don taking Mikey’s arm to guide him.  They came to stand behind Master Splinter as the screen switched from the news studio to a young woman standing in the middle of a street, the darkness of night time pushed back by numerous area lights.  Other news crews were nearby and a large police presence was visible in the background.

            _“Jim, residents in this neighborhood have described a scene of unheralded destruction and bloodshed tonight,”_ the reporter began _.  “Members of a gang identified as the Purple Dragons appear to have been ambushed as they stood outside a small corner bar.  Shots were fired, but so far all reports indicate that the gunfire came from the Purple Dragons themselves.  The only assailant to have been seen was described as a large man wearing a green costume and a red mask._

            _“Several of the gang members were transported to area hospitals, where they are listed in varying conditions.  One man is confirmed dead, but at least two others are listed as being in critical condition._

_“Police have no suspects in custody and will only tell us that the investigation is ongoing.  Back to you.”_

            The television was suddenly turned off but other than that Master Splinter did not move a hair.  Mikey couldn’t see his brothers, but he felt their eyes as they stared at each other.

            Don’s voice when he spoke was low and filled with immeasurable pain.

            “Raph m  . . . murdered someone,” he stammered.

TBC………………


	6. Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,748  
> Rated: R TCest, adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Mikey felt Don slump against him and quickly grabbed his brother.  He could hear Don whispering, “Oh no, oh no, no, no,” over and over again as he held him.

            No one else had said a thing when the TV went off.  Since Mikey couldn’t see, he had to get his family talking in order to gauge their reactions.

            “Leo, help me with Donny,” Mikey called. 

            He was relieved to feel Leo’s presence when his brother came over to guide the pair around to the front of the couch.  Giving Leo something to do would keep him from bolting off after Raph.

            They helped Don sit down next to Master Splinter and Mikey perched on the arm of the couch on Don’s other side, one hand on Don’s shoulder.

            “Leonardo, stay!” Master Splinter ordered sharply, leading Mikey to believe his oldest brother had started for the door.

            “Dudes, don’t jump to conclusions,” Mikey said in as firm a voice as he could muster.  “All we know is Raph probably got into it with the Purple Dragons and that’s not unusual.  They use guns and that’s not unusual either.  Just ‘cause someone got killed doesn’t mean Raph did it.  The guy could have been run over for all we know.”

            “Michelangelo is correct,” Master Splinter said.  “Raphael’s behavior has been rash but I do not believe him capable of mindless killing, no matter what he advocates.”

            “He’s changed,” Don said in a voice barely above a whisper.  “How could he change so much in one month?”

            “It didn’t happen all of a sudden like that,” Mikey stated positively.

            “Michelangelo, what do you mean?” Master Splinter asked.

            Mikey shifted a little to the side to get more comfortable.  “Something’s been eating at him for a couple of months,” he said.  “He wouldn’t say anything except the usual stuff when I asked him about it, but sometimes I’d catch him just resting his forehead against his punching bag instead of pounding on it.”

            “Perhaps a physical ailment?” Master Splinter guessed.

            Don shook his head.  “I check all of us regularly, especially Raph because he tends to try and hide injuries,” he said.  “Everything has been completely normal.”

            “I’m telling you guys, there’s something bugging him,” Mikey insisted.  “Come on Don, think.  He talks to you the most about deep stuff; can you remember him saying anything out of the ordinary?”

            “If he had don’t you think I would have followed up on it?” Don snapped peevishly.

            “Maybe it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for him,” Leo said slowly as he thought about the situation.  “Could it be something we normally run across but for some reason it bothered him more, maybe bothered him enough so he couldn’t let go of it?”

            “What are you thinking, Leo?” Mikey asked.

            Leo started to pace, his mind flashing through disagreements he’d had with Raph over the months before his brother’s departure.  “Master Splinter, remember the argument he had with you before he left?”

            “Yes,” Master Splinter said.  “He advocated a path that our code of honor does not abide.  Raphael was most adamant in his insistence that we abrogate that which we hold most sacred.”

            “Why?” Leo stopped pacing to ask.  “Raph has always insisted we should take a proactive approach to stopping crime and for the most part we do exactly that during our patrols.  We’ve undertaken to do most of what he wants already; we see it, we stop it.”

            “But we aren’t always on time,” Don said softly.

            Leo’s head turned in his direction.  “No we aren’t.  Seeing the victims we haven’t saved bothers all of us, but Raph seems to think we should be greased lightning and save everyone.”

            “No,” Don said.  When the others looked at him, he lifted his head higher and said, “Raph said we can’t save anyone because what we do is pointless.”

            “When did he say that, Donny?” Leo asked.

            “A few months ago,” Don said.  “It was just after that pair of muggers attacked those people on the bus and killed a lady and that kid who had just graduated from high school.  You remember guys.  The muggers were the same men we caught snatching purses in the Bowery.  We trussed them up and left them for the cops, but they made bail the next day.  Raph said that if we’d dropped them in the East River instead then those two people would still be alive.”

            “He took it kind of hard,” Mikey said.  “I remember.”

            “Raph takes a lot of things pretty hard,” Leo responded.

            “This was different though,” Don said.  “I mean, I sort of saw his point.  If we could have done more maybe those two people wouldn’t have died.”

            “That isn’t something we know in advance when we’re stopping a crime,” Leo pointed out.  “What happened was terrible, but that isn’t the norm.  Not every mugger, or purse snatcher, or petty thief is going to escalate to something worse.  It’s society’s place to judge and punish them, not ours.”

            “What did you tell him, Donny?” Mikey asked.

            “I told him he had to let it go,” Don said.  “It’s the same for us as it is for the cops and the prosecutors, we have to think of it as a job and not let it get personal or it will eat at us.”

            “I guess that’s what it was doing to Raph,” Mikey said.  “Eating at him.”

            “Those aren’t the first deaths we’ve experienced,” Leo said.

            “No, but they’re the first that were caused by people we thought we’d already stopped,” Mikey said.  “Maybe Raph feels responsible.  I don’t know; is that enough to push him over the edge?”

            “Disenfranchised,” Don murmured, his brow furrowed in thought.

            “What was that?” Leo asked.

            “Something I read once, hang on, let me remember,” Don said. 

            Everyone remained silent while Don’s eidetic memory accessed the place where he’d stored that piece of information.  While they waited, Mikey slid his right arm from the sling and flexed it, determining that though sore it was back to full working order.

            “It had to do with the stages of grief,” Don said finally.  “Grief occurs when we experience a loss and is characterized by feelings of sadness, hopelessness, depression, numbness, anger, and even guilt.  Those feelings gradually fade with the passage of time.  Disenfranchised grief interferes with normal grief resolution which causes the feelings associated with grief to persist.”

            “But he didn’t even know those people, Donny,” Mikey murmured.

            Don turned his head to look at Mikey and then remembered his brother couldn’t see.  Placing his hand on Mikey’s knee, Don said, “That’s the disenfranchised part.  It’s a kind of grief that isn’t openly acknowledged.  The mourner’s relationship isn’t recognized therefore the grief isn’t recognized.  Because the relationship isn’t a normally accepted one, the person who is grieving is cut off from the usual social support. My telling Raph to basically suck it up didn’t help.”

            “That’s not on you, Don,” Leo said quickly.  “That was a difficult experience for all of us and no one wanted to dwell on it.”

            “But Raph couldn’t help himself,” Don said, “and I didn’t notice.  What we essentially told him was he had no right to mourn.  He felt like he had to hide what he was feeling and that gave him a sense of alienation from his family and friends.”

            “So you’re saying Raph felt like we didn’t think his grief was valid?” Mikey asked.

            “Yes, I think so,” Don answered.  “It fits with how he’s behaving now.  He was depressed and started to withdraw from us, after which came those emotional outbursts and the rage he couldn’t seem to control.  I believe Raph felt alone and abandoned and his fight with Master Splinter was his way of trying to legitimize his feelings.”

            “What he was asking for was very different from a simple acknowledgement that we should feel guilty because those people died,” Leo said.

            “I think he was past the point of our recognition doing him any good,” Mikey pointed out.

            “Exactly,” Don said, growing more excited as he thought it through.  “Disenfranchised grief, because it’s hidden, can increase the reaction to loss.  All of the normal stages of grief are intensified, including the feeling of being powerless.  To Raph’s mind, permanently destroying the things that caused him so much grief is the only way to regain power over his emotional response.”

            “So the things he did to us are what?” Mikey asked.  “Another way to exert his power?”

            “His control,” Don said, correcting him.  “He needs to bring us down to his level.  Out there alone, fighting his war, still isn’t validating his grief.  Raph needs us to be with him so he no longer feels stigmatized.”

            “We cannot offer Raphael what it is he wants,” Master Splinter said.  “I understand his pain, but his solution is unacceptable.”

            “What can we do to get through to him?” Leo asked.

            Don took a deep breath.  “I can tell you what the textbooks on the subject say to do,” he said.  “They say that those closest to the griever must recognize that though the grief isn’t something that’s normally sanctioned it’s still a valid loss.  We have to get Raph to talk about it and really listen to him, and we have to be understanding of what he’s going through.”

            “How do we get him to talk when all he wants to do is beat the snot out of us?” Mikey asked.

            “The next part is even harder,” Don said.  “Somehow we have to facilitate his resolution of the loss and work with him while he does that.”

            “Obviously we can’t do that,” Leo said.  “His resolution to those killings is to murder Hun and Karai and anyone he’s decided have committed crimes deserving punishment by death.”

            “Dude, that could be a really long list,” Mikey observed.

            “You are describing an intervention, Donatello,” Master Splinter said to clarify what he’d heard.

            “Something along those lines,” Don said.  “We have to reestablish the social hierarchy that is a normal part of Raph’s life.  As long as he feels alone, he’s going to continue to take the law into his own hands, and the violence is going to keep escalating.”

            “That’s some deep stuff bro’,” Mikey said.  “Right now he doesn’t want our hierarchy.  I think he wants Leo’s head.”

            “Then I should give him a shot at it,” Leo said firmly.

            His brothers both started speaking at once.  They were silenced by Master Splinter’s sharp, “Enough!”

            Before he could say anything further, Mikey blurted, “Didn’t we just agree that none of us goes out alone?”

            “Michelangelo,” Master Splinter said.  Mikey huffed in frustration but kept his mouth shut.

            “A half an hour ago I didn’t understand what was going on in Raph’s head,” Leo said.  “Not giving him a target seemed like the most logical strategy to thwart his aggression.  If what Don says is true, then the only way to fix this is to get Raph talking.”

            “If he catches you alone it isn’t gonna be about talking,” Mikey insisted.

            “It isn’t going to be about his agenda either,” Leo said.  “Let him think he’s lured me out and can goad me into doing something out of anger.  My focus will be on getting him to admit what really started all of this.”

            “How sure are you that he can’t get you mad?” Don asked quietly.

            “Yeah Leo,” Mikey said.  “It’s not just him fighting dirty.  When we got into it he was saying some really ugly things.”

            Leo didn’t need for Mikey to elaborate because he could guess.  From the way Don winced, Leo figured that the genius had guessed as well.

            “Raphael is as much a ninja as you are, Leonardo,” Master Splinter said.  “He will use his knowledge of you to his advantage, just as you will attempt to do.  While you are bound to conduct yourself with honor, he has chosen a different path.  You must remember this if you are to control your anger.  Your brother’s goal is to turn your footsteps onto the path he now travels, yours is to make him understand that path leads to a dead end.”

            “I understand sensei,” Leo said.

            “How are you going to find him?” Don asked.

            “He’ll find me,” Leo answered with assurance.  “He’ll be certain that we’ve seen this newscast and that I’ll respond.  Whether he meant for that encounter to reach this level of violence or not, Raph knows I won’t sit by and ignore it.”

            “I should go with you,” Don said as he started to rise.

            “No,” Leo said.  Mikey gripped Don’s shoulder tighter, urging him back down.  “He’d use you as a weapon against me,” Leo explained.  “Master Splinter is correct; I shouldn’t give him that kind of leverage.  I can’t worry that the things he says will hurt you; it will be easier for me to ignore them if I know they aren’t hitting another target.”

            “He’s in pain and lashing out,” Don said.  “I understand that.”

            Leo walked over to Don and cupped his chin, bringing his eyes up so that Leo could look into them.

            “So do I,” Leo said, “but that doesn’t mean that he can’t inflict long lasting injuries.  I have my shell cell and I’ll check in if I haven’t run into him in a couple of hours.  If you don’t hear from me then call.”

            “If I don’t hear from you I’m going to follow your tracking signal,” Don said with determination.

            “Not alone,” Mikey said.  “You can’t go out after Leo by yourself and I can’t see.”

            “I will go with him,” Master Splinter said.  “Leonardo, take great care my son.  Raphael may have more on his mind than simply provoking you to anger.”

            Leo bowed swiftly and left the lair, feeling the weight of his family’s worry.

            Knowing that Raph would be expecting him all Leo had to do was decide where his brother thought he’d begin his search.  That was easy enough, if Raph was truly waging a mini-war against the Dragons, then he’d be near the neighborhood where the fight had occurred.

            Quickly reaching the roof tops, Leo stopped for a moment to get his bearings and to scan the horizon.  Seeing no movement, he started off in the direction of Raph’s latest sighting, taking his time so that he could see if he was being followed.

            As he neared the crime scene, Leo moved closer to the shadows provided by the various roof top structures, sliding around corners and hovering near walls until he was sure the coast was clear.  He didn’t think the police would be on the roofs, but taking chances was something he’d been trained not to do.

            The punch came out of nowhere, striking Leo hard enough to spin him on his heels and send him sliding across the roofing gravel.

            Cursing inwardly at having been caught unawares, Leo swiftly gained his feet, his posture defensive, surprised that his attacker wasn’t following up on his advantage.

            Leo watched as Raphael stepped out from the side of the shed he’d been hiding behind.  There was a mad glow behind his gold eyes but his signature cocky grin was noticeably missing.

            “Had a feeling you’d accept my invitation,” Raph said.  “Must have been hard ta pull yourself away from Don and Mikey, seeing as you’ve got ‘em all ta yourself now.  Ya’ been fuckin’ them every night?”

            “If that’s the question at the top of your list, why don’t you come home and ask them yourself?” Leo asked.

            A part of his mind wanted to strike out in return for the sucker punch, but Leo held himself in check, concentrating on his purpose for trying to find Raph in the first place.

            “Nah, I ain’t that interested,” Raph said.

            Leo frowned.  Raph’s demeanor was all wrong, his voice flat and dead sounding.  This wasn’t the personality he’d displayed to either Don or Mikey and Leo immediately knew something else had changed.  Whatever it was, he hoped he was equipped to deal with it.

            “Since you knew I’d come, that makes this your party,” Leo said carefully.  “What did you have in mind?”

            Raph’s hands moved to the grips on his sais, yanking them from his belt in one fast, smooth motion.

            “Well big bro’,” Raph said, his voice dropping to a deeper tone.  “How about we dance?”

TBC……………………


	7. Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 3,184  
> Rated: R adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Leo kept his hands out to his sides, making no sudden movements.  If he could avoid drawing his katanas then there was a chance he could keep the confrontation with his brother from escalating.

            “What, none of your customary taunts first?” Leo asked.  “No challenges to my authority?  Aren’t you even going to spend a minute calling me a tight ass bastard?”

            “I kinda think we’re past that point, don’t ya’?” Raph replied.

            “Actually I don’t,” Leo said calmly.  “Usually I understand what it is we’re fighting about.  At the moment I have no clue as to why you treated Don so cavalierly or why you savagely attacked Mikey.  We haven’t seen each other in over a month and here you are, weapons drawn.  Why don’t you explain this to me?”

            A corner of Raph’s mouth twitched, but not from amusement.  “Let me guess,” he said.  “Master Splinter told ya’ not ta lose it with me, right?  He told ya’ ta handle me the way a good leader would and coax my ass back home.”

            “What is so bad about coming home?” Leo countered.  “Why do you feel the need to be a one turtle crusade?  No one has to die for you to make a difference.”

            “Psychobabble,” Raph said.  “Don’s contribution.  That’s just like ya’, listening ta the pacifist turtle while innocent people drop dead all around ya’.”

            “Are you angry at Don because his philosophy is different from yours?” Leo asked.  “He’s always been of a more moderate temperament and you know that.  Was treating him with disrespect your way of showing your disdain for his principles or were you just trying to tell him you don’t care about him anymore?”

            “Actually, I fucked him ‘cause I knew he’d be too gullible to resist,” Raph said with a nasty smirk.  “Good old trusting Donatello; I’ll bet I could tell him any kind of sob story right now and get him ta bend over for my dick again.”

            Despite his efforts, Leo could feel the heat rising inside his chest.  Reminding himself that what Raph was saying were just words, he managed to control the slow crawl of anger.

            “You don’t understand him nearly as well as you think you do,” Leo said.  “He learns quickly.  Was that really a bridge you wanted to burn, Raph?  First Don, then Mikey?”

            Questions were the key, keep pressing him with questions.  Leo felt like that was the best strategy to get Raph to talk; ask things in a way that Raph felt he had to answer, to explain himself.

            Raph snorted.  “Mikey’s just as bad, living in his fantasy land.  The real world doesn’t work like his comic books do and he needs ta learn that damn quick.  Bet he really bitched about our little skirmish.”

            “Throwing dirt in your adversaries face is a low, underhanded trick.  You could have permanently damaged his eyes!” Leo exclaimed hotly.

            Silence. One heartbeat, two.  “He can see though right?  He’s okay?” Raph asked in a more subdued tone.

            Leo stared at him a moment before answering, letting the wave of anger dissipate.  “You really don’t think first, do you?  You’re all about proving a point and a lifetime of training be damned.”

            The question brought a dangerous look back into Raph’s eyes.  “Screw your lifetime of training.  What has that gotten us other than our pictures on back alley walls for the Purple Dragons ta throw shit at and a bull’s-eye on our shells for the Foot?  I say we strike first and stop looking over our shoulders.”

            “Is that what you were doing tonight, Raphael?”  Leo asked.  “Is killing now considered a proactive approach to crime?”

            “Better to get than be got,” Raph said with disdain.

            “All life has a value, including those who have yet to be judged,” Leo said.

            “That man tonight got judged,” Raph told him.  “He came up wanting and was found guilty.  If anyone deserved ta die tonight, he sure as fuck did.”

            “How does that make you feel?” Leo asked, growing more concerned by the minute.

            “Fucking liberated,” Raph said slowly, teeth bared in an animalistic snarl.

            “From what exactly?”  Leo watched as Raph’s grip on his sais tightened.  Still he made no move for his katanas, unwilling to give his brother the slightest signal of aggression.

            “Ya’ name it,” Raph answered.  “Your constant crap, Mikey’s childish pranks, Master Splinter’s fucking rules and nagging; pick one.”

            “Master Splinter is concerned by your behavior,” Leo said, noticing that Raph didn’t mention Don.  “All of us are.  You have a family Raph, one who cares about your welfare.”

            Raph’s jaw worked from side to side as he fought to keep some hidden emotion from staining his features.

            “If ya really wanted ta show ya’ care, you’d help me get rid of Hun and Karai once and for all,” Raph finally growled, his expression stony once more.

            “Will that really help?”  Leo asked softly.

            “Ya’ ain’t gonna do it, are ya’ Fearless?” Raph asked in return, his voice a dark monotone.  “You’re just up here jackin’ me around and playing for time.  Time’s up asshole.”

            His lunge was fast, the sais spinning into an attack position as he moved.  Leo’s crouch and leap were automatic, his mind momentarily grappling with the shocking fact that Raph hadn’t given him time to draw his weapons.

            Leo flipped in midair, pulling his body into a tight curl to avoid Raph’s strike.  He landed off to Raph’s side, giving Leo the second he needed to unsheathe his katanas as his brother pivoted to come after him.

            Raph’s first jab was low and aimed at Leo’s side, his second sai held high to block Leo’s katana.  Leo’s sword slid off Raph’s blade and he jumped back to avoid the solid tip of his brother’s sai.

            The weapons twirled in Raph’s hands as he darted back inside Leo’s defenses.  Points downward, Raph attempted to plunge his sais into Leo’s chest, but the older turtle caught the weapons on his katanas and then executed a quick snap kick into Raph’s stomach, shoving the larger turtle away from him.

            Growling, Raph came back in, striking at Leo with one sai as the other spun defensively, pushing Leo’s katana aside.  Leo in turn caught the second sai, twisting it away from his center mass and then sliding his blade loose.

            Swinging down and across, Leo forced Raph to leap away from him, increasing the distance between them and giving Leo the advantage with his longer weapon.  If he hoped to get a word in or take a breath, he didn’t get the opportunity.  Raph seemed driven by some insane inner energy, flying at Leo in a manner that was close to reckless.

            It also became clear as they fought that Raphael was not holding back.  With a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, Leo knew his brother was forcing him to battle exactly the way Leo would if he was facing the Shredder himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            The sound of Don’s fingers rapidly tapping the keys on his computer was starting to drive Mikey a little nuts.

            Shortly after Leo left the lair, Master Splinter had retired to his room, probably to meditate.  After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Don had reached up to grip Mikey’s hand, which still sat on his shoulder.  Giving it a gentle squeeze, Don had gotten up and said he was going to his lab to finish repairing Mikey’s shell cell and had left Mikey alone.

            With his eyes still bandaged there wasn’t a lot the orange banded turtle could do other than listen to televised re-runs or constantly switch radio channels in the hopes of catching some breaking news.  Bored and worried, he spent some time walking from place to place in the lair, guessing on how many steps it would take and betting himself that he could remember where things were so that he wouldn’t run into anything.

            That was only entertaining for just so long and he decided that he’d rather sit in Don’s lab with him and listen to his brother’s gentle voice.  It really didn’t matter what Don chose to talk about; the mellow cadence went a long way towards easing Mikey’s anxieties.

            When he got there though his brother barely acknowledged his presence, the clacking sound evidence of Don’s frenzied computer search.  Mikey groped around until he found the stool that was usually near Don’s desk and then perched on it, knowing that at some point Don would share whatever it was he was doing.

            Finally Mikey couldn’t take it anymore and asked, “What the heck are you working on dude?”

            “The news reports are useless,” Don replied in a distracted manner.

            Waiting a moment and deciding that’s all Don was going to say unless prompted, Mikey said, “I’m gonna assume you’re talking about what happened tonight.  Good luck getting any more information than what we heard earlier.  You know how the news works; they shove a handful of stuff into a sound bite and move on.  Besides, the police aren’t gonna release much when a killing is involved.”

            “That’s why I’m not relying on the news outlets,” Don said.  The sound of his typing stopped for a moment as he hummed to himself, and then began again.  “I’m hacking into the law enforcement data base.”

            “You’re doing what?” Mikey asked incredulously.  “Don’t they have like, a _massive_ task force that tracks down hackers?”

            “They do and that’s why it’s taking me so long,” Don said.  “I’m making sure not to leave any kind of footprint.”

            Mikey listened to him type for a few more minutes and then said, “Yeah, I’d kinda like to know how that guy was killed too.”

            If possible, Don’s typing speed increased.  Just when Mikey thought his brother wasn’t going to say anything else, Don asked, “What do you think Master Splinter will do if Raph really murdered someone?”

            “I kinda don’t want to think about it, bro’,” Mikey admitted.  “Though I don’t think our family would ever be the same again.”

            “We can’t lose him,” Don said, his voice almost too low to hear.

            “It’s not fair is it?” Mikey asked, his tone equally somber.  “I mean, there’s only four of us and that’s all there’s ever gonna be.”

            “Just four,” Don repeated, the hitch in his voice obvious.

            Ever the optimist, Mikey knew he couldn’t let his brother get lost in despair, especially considering all the facts weren’t even in yet.

            “I got an idea,” Mikey said, trying to sound light hearted.  “Let’s drag Raph back home and give him a frontal lobotomy.  It’ll control his temper and the worst that’ll happen is we’ll have to wipe up his drool every once and awhile.”

            Don’s soft chuckle told Mikey that his mental picture had gotten to the genius.

            “I’d be too afraid to see what’s in his head to do that,” Don quipped in return.

            Mikey grinned, happy to hear Don perk up and more than happy not to hear the sound of his brother typing.

            “Did you find something?” Mikey asked.

            “Yes, I think I’ve got the responding officer’s notes,” Don said.  “Oh wait, here are the reports from the initial investigation . . . .”

            His voice trailed off and Mikey leaned forward, wondering what his brother was reading.  The silence stretched on for a couple of minutes and Mikey started to think Don had forgotten he was in the room.

            Don’s sudden gasp nearly made Mikey fall off his perch.  Heart thundering in his chest, Mikey asked, “What?  What did you read?  Did he kill that guy?”

            “No,” Don answered, his tone sharp with agitation.  “He was shot by his own gang.  The idiots were firing in every direction trying to hit Raph and ended up shooting each other.  But that’s not all.  The Purple Dragons kidnapped a young girl and had her locked up in a back room waiting to auction off her virginity.  Someone broke through a side door and got her out, but her screaming alerted the Dragons and that’s when the fight started.”

            “That someone was Raph right?” Mikey asked, unsure as to why Don sounded so disturbed.

            “The girl told the police a big green man took her,” Don said.  “Raph stopped a cab by jumping in front of it and shoved the girl inside.  He told the driver to take her to the hospital.  She was hit by gunfire too.”

            “But she’s okay or she couldn’t have told the police anything,” Mikey said.  “So what’s wrong?”

            “Raph doesn’t know she’s okay,” Don said.  “All he knows is another innocent person got hurt while he was trying to do the right thing.  This is bad, this is very bad.”

            “Why?” Mikey asked.  He felt Don start to go past him and reached out quickly, grabbing Don’s arm.  “Why?  Raph already feels guilty, how does this change anything?”

            “Oh gods Mikey, you don’t understand,” Don told him.  “Raph’s grief and guilt made him rash but purposeful.  This could push him too far.”

            He tried to break free of Mikey’s grip, but the younger turtle held fast.  “Push him how Don?  Would he try to kill Leo?”

            “Not Leo,” Don said, twisting out of Mikey’s hold.  “Himself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Try as he might, Leo could not overcome Raph’s ruthless and relentless attacks, not without using deadly force.  Their fight continued on, completely stalemated, but Raph refused to yield that point, instead increasing the viciousness of his strikes.

            Leo’s one hope was that Raph would eventually tire and quit.  To that end, Leo’s strategy was simple; avoid Raph’s assault, use as little energy as possible to defend himself, and let Raph’s rage finally burn itself out.

            Raph was no fool and it didn’t take him long to see through Leo’s ploy.  They had been training together for too many years for Raph not to realize that Leo wasn’t trying to beat him.

            “Fight me ya’ bastard!” Raph screamed in his brother’s face, their weapons momentarily locked together.

            “I don’t want to do this, Raph!” Leo yelled in return, hooking a foot behind Raph’s ankle and unbalancing his brother enough to slide his katanas free of Raph’s trap.

            Leo back flipped away from his brother, landing with his swords up and ready.  To his surprise Raph didn’t give chase, instead standing and glaring at Leo, his chest heaving from his exertions.

            “Fine, if you’re too much a coward ta finish this, then I’ll go where I can find a real fight!” Raph shouted.  “I started the night by killing Dragons and I might as well end it that way!”

            Raph spun on his heels and ran headlong towards the roof’s edge, vaulting effortlessly onto the next building.  He did not break stride as he landed, racing across the roof with obvious purpose.

            With no hesitation, Leo darted after his brother, determined to prevent Raph from causing further harm.  There was a strange light in Raph’s eyes, something almost maniacal, and Leo now understood he might have to take drastic measures to stop a sibling he loved more than life itself.

            The only good that could be said of the chase was that Raph was moving away from more heavily inhabited areas and into a section of the city that was in severe decline.  Numerous buildings stood empty, many of them condemned and scheduled for demolition.  It was an area that was perfect for gang occupation and Leo decided Raph had located a Purple Dragon stronghold somewhere in the vicinity.

            Momentarily losing sight of his brother, Leo sheathed one of his katanas and pulled his shell cell from his belt.  It was time to bring Master Splinter into the pursuit; as much as Leo would like to handle this on his own, he was a good enough leader to know when other resources had to be called into play.

            A deep low rumble not unlike the sound a charging bull was Leo’s only warning as Raph bore down on him from out of nowhere.  Leo’s katana lifted and caught the sai that was driving down at him as Raph plowed into Leo’s body and lifted them both off their feet.

            Leo slammed into the rooftop with his brother on top of him, the shell cell flying from his hand.  Straining to keep his katana locked with his brother’s weapon, Leo reached up to catch Raph’s other wrist, stopping the point of his brother’s second sai from plunging into his neck.

            Raph continued to push downward, grunting as his muscles fought against Leo’s.  Both were locked in a fierce battle of might and concentration, with Raph seemingly determined to draw blood at all costs.

            The position was not a good one for Leo.  As powerful and focused as Leo was, Raph’s superior weight and strength would force an inevitable outcome.  The red banded turtle knew this, his lips curling up in a parody of a smile.

            Eyes fixed on each other’s, the pair fought a combat of wills as unyielding as their physical one.  The heavy breath of one mingled with the other, too strongly reminiscent of a time when their love making was as fierce as this current battle for life.

            The strident cry of the shell cell suddenly broke the silence, startling Raph.  His tiny lapse was enough for Leo who jerked his upper body to the side at the same time releasing Raph’s arm.

            With nothing holding him, Raph’s sai slammed into the roof and then Leo’s elbow drove into his chin, snapping Raph’s head back.  Rolling on his hip, Leo flung Raph away from him, losing his katana as Raph twisted it from his hand.  Springing to his feet, Leo swiftly drew his remaining sword.

            Raph came up on one knee and flung a sai directly at Leo.  Reflexes lifted Leo’s katana into the path of the heavy metal, deflecting it from its trajectory with a flick of his wrist.  The force of the contact reverberated into Leo’s hand and his arm came down just as Raph leaped at him.

            Leo’s sword began to turn as he prepared to block the sai that Raph was jabbing towards him.  A split second before their weapons connected, Raph pulled his aside.

            Everything slowed in that moment.  With horror Leo watched as Raph impaled himself on the tip of Leo’s katana, an almost triumphant gleam in his eyes.  The razor sharp sword dug into the skin just above Raph’s hip, slicing a deep gouge along his side.

            Cold realization struck Leo in a flash and he threw himself backwards, yanking his sword out of his brother’s body.  He heard Raph’s feral growl of disappointment as Leo hit the roof hard.

            The roof shook under the force of Leo’s impact and suddenly began to crumble, old wood snapping and giving way.  With a shout, Leo plummeted through the opening.

            His last glimpse of Raph was of his brother glaring down at him, one hand pressed against his side as blood poured over his emerald green fingers.

TBC………………….


	8. Part 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,865  
> Rated: R TCest, adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            “I found his shell cell!”

            “Where is he?  Donny, there’s blood!”

            “Come here my sons, quickly.  Leonardo is below.”

            The voices of his family drifted down to Leo as he pried his eyes open.  His vision blurred and then doubled before beginning to clear.  Lying on his back, the first thing he saw was a dark night sky and a couple of stars bright enough to fight the shine of city lights.

            When he tried to move, Leo realized he was covered in debris.  Coughing as the still settling dust tickled his throat, Leo managed to lift one of his arms so he could begin shoving the heavy boards and slabs of plaster off of him.

            “Leo, don’t move!” Don shouted.  “I’m coming down!”

            “It’s not stable,” Leo called up to him.

            “Mikey’s lowering me on a rope.  I know where the support beams are so I’ll be safe, just stay still,” Don told him.

            Leo wanted to ask how Mikey was doing anything when he couldn’t see, but he tabled the question for later.  His primary concern at the moment was getting out of the building he was trapped in and locating Raphael.

            Turning his head to keep the dirt from Don’s descent out of his face, Leo asked, “Did you see Raph?”

            “No,” Don said, landing light footed next to Leo.  “I tracked your cell signal, but he was nowhere in sight when we arrived.”

            “He’s hurt,” Leo said as Don began plucking the debris off of him.  “I don’t know how badly.”

            “Mikey found blood, a splattering of it near the hole and then a thin trail leading to the edge of the roof,” Don said, carefully picking his way down to where a large wooden beam had trapped Leo’s legs.

            Leo sat up and slid his legs out as Don lifted the beam.  “Damn him,” Leo cursed under his breath, surprising Don.

            “Are you injured?” Don asked, scooting forward and placing a hand on Leo’s shoulder to keep him from rising.  “You didn’t break anything when you fell?”

            “No, I’m fine,” Leo said.  “Let’s get out of here before something else decides to collapse.”

            “Here,” Don handed him the rope.  “Don’t try to climb because the rope will sway too much against the rotted ceiling beams.  Let Mikey pull you up.”

            Leo nodded and Don called up to Mikey to begin lifting him.  While Don waited for Leo to reach safety, he looked around the room Leo had landed in.  Something glinted off to one side and Don carefully made his way over to it, discovering Leo’s katana.  When he lifted it, Don saw the dull stain of dried blood on the steel.

            The rope slapping against the floorboards as it came back down pulled Don out of his reverie.  Holding Leo’s sword in one hand, Don gripped the rope with his other hand and tugged on it to let Mikey know he was ready.

            As Don reached the edge of the roof opening, he saw that Leo was helping Mikey lift him.  Making sure that Mikey had a tight hold on the rope, Leo let go and grabbed Don’s arm, pulling him up and away from the hole.

            Leo’s eyes fell on the katana and darkened immediately.  Silently, Don handed it to him, watching as Leo sheathed it.

            “He tried to kill himself on my sword,” Leo said in a low voice.

            Don grimaced.  “That’s why we’re here, I was afraid he might do that.”

            “How did you know?” Leo asked.

            “I found the report on what happened with the Purple Dragons.  He didn’t kill that man, the other Dragons did.  Raph was trying to save a young girl from them, but she screamed when she saw him and the Dragons opened fire.  She was hit before Raph managed to get her to safety,” Don said.

            “She’s okay,” Mikey said, “but at this point I guess that doesn’t matter to Raph.  He thinks he failed again.”

            Leo noticed the goggles covering Mikey’s eyes and asked, “Can you see all right?”

            “Yeah.  After what Don said I wasn’t gonna sit around the lair waiting for you guys.  I took the bandages off but Don wouldn’t let me go out without some kind of protection.  They keep the air from stinging my scratches,” Mikey said with a small smile.

            It faded as Master Splinter approached, carrying Leo’s second katana.  “How badly is Raphael injured?” he asked.

            “I don’t know,” Leo replied honestly.  “As soon as my sword touched skin I tried to pull back, but he kept coming at me.  When I realized what he was trying to do, I just threw myself  away from him.  As soon as I hit the roof it collapsed and I fell but he didn’t.  I sliced him pretty badly near his hip; I could see the blood even as I was falling.”

            “You did not injure him, Raphael injured himself,” Master Splinter said, his eyes boring into Leo’s.  “Your brother is deeply troubled and his actions are a reflection of that, but they are in no way your fault.”

            “I could tell something was off about him,” Leo said.  “He wasn’t behaving the way Don and Mikey had described; I couldn’t see purpose in his eyes, they just seemed . . . empty.  I should have adjusted my approach as soon as I realized that.”

            “What would you have done differently other than just walk away from him?  He wouldn’t have let you do that, not when he’s in this state of mind,” Don said.

            “Let’s try to track him,” Leo said, leaving the rest of that discussion for later.

            “While you and your brothers do that, I will return home,” Master Splinter said.  “It is possible that in his injured state Raphael may return there for assistance.”

            “Please call my shell cell if he does, sensei,” Don requested.  “He’s going to need medical help.”

            The turtles and their master separated.  Following the trail of blood to the roof’s edge, the three brothers leaped across the divide between buildings, spotting splotches of blood as soon as they landed on the opposite roof.

            They managed to follow Raph’s path across several other buildings and then it came to an abrupt end.  Separating, the trio scouted around, trying the doors on storage sheds, looking inside water towers, and even forcing open roof top entrances to see if Raph had gone down a stairwell.

            “Guys, I found something,” Mikey called quietly from his perch on a nearby fire escape.

            When Leo and Don leaned over to look down at him, Mikey pointed at a fresh patch of blood on the railing and then up towards the nearby clothesline.

            “There’s blood on the rope and some on this pair of shorts,” Mikey said.  “I think he grabbed something off of here to stop the blood flow.  He probably climbed down from here, but I can’t find any more blood.”

            “We’ll go down to the alley, maybe he left some other trail,” Leo said.

            The alley proved to be a dead end.  Mikey’s guess was right and whatever Raph had used to stop the tell-tale blood trail had worked.

            Leo slammed his fist into the side of a garbage dumpster, the scowl on his face grim.  Don and Mikey exchanged glances, both well aware of the self-recriminations floating through their oldest brother’s head.

            “There’s a good chance that wound and your fall snapped him out of his suicidal thoughts,” Don said, sounding as calmly clinical as he could manage.  “The fact that he’s gone out of his way to staunch the blood flow doesn’t necessarily mean he’s trying to shake us off his trail.”

            “You can’t know that,” Leo said, his voice low and gravelly.

            “Not with any certainty no,” Don told him.  “Trying to analyze Raph from afar is hardly the most auspicious way to figure out what our brother is up to.  Neither is beating yourself up over the choices he’s been making.  _His choices_.  You can only lead and provide guidance if you have a willing team Leo.  Raph isn’t willing to accept anyone else’s decisions right now and there was nothing you could have done about that.”

            Leo turned on him, eyes fierce.  “What you’re describing is a no win situation and I won’t accept that.  Don’t tell me what I can’t do, Donatello.  Tell me what I can.”

            “Raph isn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of killing him,” Mikey said quickly.  When he had his brother’s attention, he continued.  “If he just wanted to die he would have let the Purple Dragons kill him.  Raph still has enough pride not to fall at our enemies hands and he isn’t going to want anyone besides us to touch his dead body.  I’m sorry that sounds so morbid dudes, but that’s why Raph tried to suicide on Leo’s blades.”

            “Donny?” Leo asked.

            Don nodded slowly, thinking about what Mikey had said.  “I believe Mikey is right.  Based on that I’d go a step further and say I think he changed his mind about killing himself during your fight.”

            “He practically fell on my sword Don,” Leo said.

            “I don’t doubt that,” Don told him.  “I stand by my first theory; that Raph wanted to harm himself and not you.  I’ve seen the two of you fight with weapons before and it can be pretty intense.  One wrong move, one misstep, or a lapse in concentration and someone could get seriously hurt.  Do you think Raph would have missed puncturing something vital with your sword if he really wanted to die?”

            “He pulled back at the last minute, didn’t he?” Mikey asked, his blue eyes bright.  “He like, realized that dying wasn’t a good solution for anything.  Or Raph decided that he wanted to come home without losing face.  Getting himself hurt bad enough so he couldn’t keep us from dragging him there would solve that problem.”

            “Then why didn’t he stay put after I cut him?” Leo asked.  “He heard my phone and knew that you’d be coming.”

            “Because you fell through the roof bro’,” Mikey said.  “He didn’t know if you were hurt and that wasn’t part of any plan.  Raph could deal with Master Splinter getting mad at him for injuring himself, but not for doing something to you, so he bailed.”

            “That little girl being shot was some sort of catalyst.  Maybe now he feels disgraced by his previous actions and falling on your sword was a way of atonement,” Don said.  “Injuring you would make Raph believe he had further shamed himself in Master Splinter’s eyes.”

            “These theories are all well and good,” Leo said, “but they are exactly that; theories.  I need to know what he is going to do next.”

            “I can’t really say with any certainty, Leo,” Don explained, “not without knowing exactly where his head is.”

            “Then give me your best guess, or even a couple of them,” Leo said.  “I can’t plan our next step unless I have something to work with.”

            “He’ll need to know that you’re all right,” Don said.  “I doubt he went very far after you fell; he was probably watching as we pulled you to safety.”

            “Raph was worried that he’d damaged Mikey’s eyes,” Leo said softly.  “He was quick to cover it, but the concern was there.”

            “Then assume he now knows you weren’t badly hurt,” Don said.  “His skirmish with you was an epiphany; he still feels guilt over the deaths of those two people on the bus and an additional burden of guilt because his attempted rescue of that girl was in his eyes a failure, but he doesn’t want to die because of it.”

            “So where are we?” Mikey asked.  “Back at square one?”

            “Someone has to pay,” Leo said, looking up at Don.  “He still wants us with him on that, doesn’t he?”

            “I would say yes.”  Don stroked his chin, lost in thought for a moment.  “Because Raph is so stubborn, it’s taken him a month to realize that he can’t do this by himself.  Goading us into seeing his side of things hasn’t worked and tonight’s incident with the Dragons has once more shown him that strategy isn’t his strong suit.”

            “What options does that leave him?” Leo asked.

            Before Don could answer, a long black car pulled into view and stopped on the opposite side of the street from the alley they were in.  As the headlights snapped off, all three brothers slid into the black space behind the dumpster, crouching low to make themselves as invisible as possible.

            For a few minutes nothing happened; the car’s engine pinged as it cooled, but there was no other sound and no movement from within.  Then a pair of dark forms dropped onto the sidewalk next to the car, seemingly coming from out of nowhere.  Both shapes hugged the shadowed wall of the building they were next to and waited.

            The car’s rear passenger door opened but no interior light came on.  As an occupant emerged the car rocked slightly, its springs tested by the sheer size of the man who stepped onto the sidewalk.

            Mikey’s gasp expertly expressed what his brothers were feeling at seeing Hun, de facto leader of the Purple Dragons and one of their greatest enemies.  The trio watched in trepidation as Hun looked first in one direction and then the other, obviously searching for something, before he directed in attention to the forms still blending into the shadows.

            “Well?’ Hun asked impatiently, his deep voice easily carrying to where the turtles were hiding.

            “He is injured.”  Two Foot ninjas became visible as they stepped closer to the man.  “There was a blood trail but it disappeared in this area.”

            “Keep looking,” Hun snapped.

            “We intend to do so,” the spokesman of the pair said smoothly.  “Mistress Karai believes he could not have gone far.  The Foot will continue to search the roof tops; our mistress bids the Purple Dragons to scour the streets.”

            Hun scowled at them.  “I don’t take orders from Karai.  One of my people is dead because of that freak and when we find him his head is going on my wall.”

            “Mistress Karai does not care what you do with the one called Raphael,” the ninja said sharply.  “It is their leader, Leonardo, who must fall beneath Mistress Karai’s sword.”

            “What makes her think any of them are still here?” Hun asked.

            “Because I have acted expeditiously upon a very reliable anonymous tip,” a third person answered.

            Leo’s head snapped up at the sound of the newcomer’s voice.  Hun turned quickly, his eyes narrowing as Karai herself approached.

            “Karai,” Hun said, his tone registering displeasure.

            “I was told that one of the turtles had been seriously injured and was hiding in this vicinity,” Karai continued, unworried by Hun’s hostility.  “The caller knew too many details for me not to take the report seriously.  They also informed me that his three brothers are nearby, trying to save him.  My Foot ninja have cordoned off the area, both above ground and below.  Since we must not be seen, it is up to the Purple Dragons to flush them out of hiding.”

            “So my people do half the labor and in return I get one turtle and you get three?” Hun asked.  “Hardly seems a fair division of the spoils.”

            “You may have their parts to sell once my clan responsibilities have been fulfilled,” Karai said with an unconcerned wave of her hand.  “It is my duty to avenge my father’s honor and that of your former master.”

            Hun smiled wickedly.  “Just so long as I get to watch and that you don’t forget that Raphael is mine.  He is the one who’s caused the most damage to the Dragons and we reserve the right to beat our revenge out of his hide.”

            Leo could feel his brothers pressing close against him, waiting expectantly.  “Sewer entrance?” he asked in a whisper.

            “None in the alley,” Don whispered in return.  “The nearest one is a hundred yards to the left, in the middle of the street.”

            “Tell your men that if they locate the turtles, they may rip Raphael to shreds in front of his brothers,” Karai said.  “That should satisfy their need for vengeance.”

            “Now you sound like your father’s daughter,” Hun said as he pulled his phone from his pocket.

            “I think we have the answer to what Raph has decided to do,” Leo muttered quietly.

            They could hear Hun ordering his Dragons to converge on the neighborhood.  While he talked, Karai suddenly spun around, her eyes aimed towards the alley.  Leo knew she couldn’t see them but avoided looking directly at her lest she sense his presence.

            After a moment, she turned away and just as studiously surveyed the street.  There was no way the turtles could move without being seen by Karai or her ninjas; they were going to have to wait for them to leave.

            “What’s Raph doing?” Mikey finally asked, unable to take the suspense any longer.

            Leo took a deep breath and then exhaled.  “He’s forcing our hand.”

TBC…………….


	9. Part 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 3,721  
> Rated: R adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Leo watched as Karai gave terse orders to the two ninjas who were standing with her.  He couldn’t hear her words, but it was easy enough to guess.  Karai was telling them to bring out every able bodied Foot soldier and make sure they sealed the area up tight.  It was exactly what he would do if he was hunting for someone.

            When they bowed and left, Karai turned back towards Hun.  He had completed one call, barking out orders to some underling, and was engaged in another call.  Hun’s words _were_ audible as he directed the leaders of several different Purple Dragon factions from across the city to converge on this particular six block area.

            His instructions were just as simple; they were to search every building from top to bottom until they found the turtles.  Able bodied citizens were to be conscripted into the search and anyone who balked at helping or letting them into their homes were to be beaten mercilessly.

            “Aren’t they worried about the police?” Don whispered.

            Leo shook his head, his eyes remaining on Karai.  “She’ll have taken care of that first thing.  This is a dead area to the city; it’s falling apart and the few citizens who still live here are too poor to be noticed.”  His voice was so low his brothers had to lean in to hear him.

            “What are we gonna do?” Mikey asked.  “Even if they don’t find us, they’re gonna find Raph.  I’m afraid that he wants them to.”

            It was the same conclusion that Leo had reached when it came to him that Raph was the anonymous tipster.  Very slowly he lifted his knee from the ground and eased into a crouch.

            “Stay here until I draw them off,” Leo said, “then try to find Raph.  You know how he thinks, figure out where he’s hiding and get him out of here, even if you have to knock him out to do it.”

            Don’s hand came down on his shoulder.  “What are you doing?  You’ll be caught!”

            “Not if I keep running,” Leo whispered with grim determination.

            “Are you planning on running right through them?” Mikey asked hoarsely.  “They’ve already got us surrounded.”

            Leo shrugged Don’s hand off as he told Mikey, “We have no choice.  It’s only a matter of minutes before Karai decides to look in this alley and this is a dead end.  I’m faster alone and I can use the shadows better than either of you.  Raph may need Don to patch him up and your eyes aren’t a hundred percent.  This is the only plan that has a chance of working, so do what I say.”

            The tone of his voice brooked no argument and since neither of Leo’s brothers had any kind of alternate plan to present, they knew this was the only thing they could do.  It didn’t mean they were happy about it.

            “You can’t keep running forever,” Don said.  “How will you know when we’ve found Raph?”

            “Ring my shell cell three times,” Leo told him.  “That’s it.  Don’t call again and don’t look for me.  Take him directly to the lair.”  Turning his head, he looked both of them in the eyes.  “If you don’t find him in twenty minutes, stop looking and go home.  I’m going to make a hole for you to escape through but I can’t guarantee it for longer than that.”

            “Leo.”  When Don said his name it came out in a low moan.  “If we don’t find him they will.”

            “We’ll have to live with that,” Leo said with determination.  “And I mean it you two.  We are going to _live_ , no matter what Raph has chosen to do to pull us into this.  He isn’t going to kill you too.”

            He could see the wetness forming in the corners of Don’s eyes and knew it was time to start moving before his brother was consumed by his emotions.  Mikey not only looked unhappy, but Leo could see a touch of obstinance creeping into his expression and that was a dangerous thing for all of them.

            “Don’t move until you’re sure you won’t be seen,” Leo said.  “I’ll get as far from here as I can before drawing their attention.  Take to the roofs; I’ll stay on the street as much as possible to pull the Foot down from there.  Be alert.”

            Leo gave them no more time to pick at his plan, sliding out from behind the garbage dumpster silently and melting into the shadows.  It wasn’t long before Don and Mikey lost sight of him, Leo’s mastery of the ninja way of invisibility unmatched.

            Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes.  Hun and Karai maintained their command post just across from the alley.  So far none of the Dragons who came and went had thought to search the alley hiding spot, perhaps believing that it had already been searched since their boss was standing nearby.

            While they waited, the brothers did as Leo had asked and racked their brains on where Raph could be hiding.  He was not one to be far from a fight, nor was he likely to be where an innocent civilian could get caught in the middle of one.

            That reasoning excluded all occupied residential buildings from their list.  The turtles knew this area; it was a good spot for a lively game of ninja tag because there were so few people who might potentially see them.  No doubt that was why Raph had chosen it, thinking it would give them the upper hand.

            Mikey knew that Don was probably sifting through his perfect mental blueprints of each building, his mind attaching probabilities and statistical data to each location faster than any computer could do so.  Raph wasn’t someone whose behavior and personality could be fed into a computer anyway; his heat and passion didn’t break down into coldly analytical bits of code.

            Leo was right as usual, they did know Raph.  He might have gotten them into this mess because he was trying to force them to do something he wanted, but Raph wouldn’t want to get them all killed to prove his point.  Raph probably wasn’t expecting Leo to attempt to fight the entire Foot clan and the Purple Dragons by himself either, just so that he could save their lives.

            The sounds of shouting suddenly reached them and Hun’s phone began to ring.  Karai’s body stiffened as she turned in the direction of the yelling and then back to Hun when he said her name.

            “It’s Leonardo,” Hun said.  “My men spotted him a couple of blocks over.”

            “The others?” Karai asked.

            “No sign of them yet, but they won’t be far from their leader,” Hun answered.

            “Tell those idiots not to stop looking,” Karai said, yanking open the door of Hun’s car to join him inside.  “If Leonardo has been seen first, it is because he wanted to be seen.”

            The car sped away from the curb, driving quickly in the direction Leo had gone.  As soon as it was out of sight of the alley, Mikey and Don scrambled for the fire escape, climbing to the roof top as quickly as they could.

            Mikey checked to see that the coast was clear before he hopped onto the roof.  When Don joined him, Mikey said, “The blood trail ended here; Raph won’t be far from here.”

            “He’d want to know what we were doing,” Don said.

            “If we got into a fight, he’d want to be close enough to join in,” Mikey added.

            “He’d save his energy by lying low, but not where people could see him or get caught in the middle of a fight,” Don said.

            “He’d have to keep track of us and the Foot,” Mikey said.

            “High ground,” Don said, almost unnecessarily because he and Mikey both looked to their east at the exact same moment.

            A block away stood a deserted and condemned hotel, one of the highest points in the neighboring area.  On the roof was a viewing cupola, its ledges decorated with three foot tall concrete gargoyles.

            “Let’s get him quick,” Don said, starting to run.  “I don’t know how much longer Leo can stay out of Karai’s clutches.  She wants him bad.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Master Splinter had not gone far in the sewers when the sound of feet splashing through the runoff water alerted him.  Darting quickly into a side tunnel, he watched a group of Foot ninjas run past, obviously intent on reaching a certain destination.

            Eyes narrowed, the old rat knew that there was but one thing that would bring the Foot below ground, and that was his family.  Unaware of Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo’s predicament, Master Splinter believed that their enemies had found Raphael.

            When the ninjas rounded a turn in the tunnel, Master Splinter came out of hiding and began trailing them.  If they had found and harmed his son, he would make them pay dearly.  If they had not, he would remove as many from the game as possible so that his child could escape.

            Thus the hunted became the hunter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Leo managed to traverse four long city blocks before he came across a blockade he knew he could not sneak past.

            Looking all around him he noticed that behind the building catty-corner from him was a construction site, the steel beams of a new high rise surrounded by a tall metal fence meant to dissuade thieves.

            If he could get them to chase him into there and then onto the unfinished building, he had a chance to not only buy his brothers some more time, but to possibly escape himself.  At least dancing across girders at fifty feet in the air would make it hard for too many of them to fight him at once.

            Leo was pretty sure they wouldn’t try to just shoot him down either, that was not Karai’s way.  Her father lived by the sword and she would do so as well.  A gun was more a weapon that was favored by Hun and though Karai used the leader of the Purple Dragons, she was contemptuous of him.

            Taking a last deep breath, Leo dashed across the street and into the open.

            He was moving so fast that he was nearly on the opposite sidewalk when one of the men standing around finally saw him.  His shout was echoed by a dozen others and someone even shot at him as he darted around the corner of the building.

            The bullet smashed into brick, sending rock fragments spraying across Leo’s shoulder.  Leaning forward to reduce wind resistance, he ran all out towards the fence.  Behind him Leo heard two or three men yell ‘No!’ at the same time and guessed that the shooter hadn’t listened to instructions very well.

            He was nearly at the fence when he heard his pursuers finally reach the sidewalk.  Even as he planted his feet and sprang upwards, Leo could pick out the slap of sneakers and thud of boots behind him.  If he concentrated hard enough, he was sure he could give an accurate count of how many men were chasing him.

            Instead he focused on his landing as he cleared the top of the fence, making sure he came down in a dead run.  Car horns were honking in what was no doubt a signal that was meant to lead others to his location.  The ruckus did not block out the sound of the fence rattling as men began climbing over to continue their pursuit.

            As he raced across the wide dirt lot towards his destination, Leo sensed rather than saw that the Foot had joined the chase.  It was the perception of numerous feet touching down on the raw earth behind him, silently outpacing the Purple Dragons who had begun the hunt.

            Ahead of him sat the elevator cage that ferried workers to the top of the building.  With a great bound, Leo leapt on top of it, drawing one of his katanas as he landed.  A quick slice cut through the lift cable, disabling the elevator, and then Leo sheathed his sword before jumping onto the first set of metal girders.

            Chancing a quick glance down, Leo saw that a large number of Foot ninjas had reached the building.  He scurried upwards, hyper aware of the location of each of his enemies.  The Purple Dragons stopped chasing him when they discovered that he’d destroyed the easy route up, something that Leo had anticipated would happen.

            The metal frame of the building was only ten stories tall at the moment, but Leo had no intention of taking his fight all the way to the top.  He would have to make a stand at least half ways up, the lowest floors already had flooring material installed in them and a battle there meant he’d be surrounded.

            He made it to the sixth floor before a couple of fleet footed ninjas caught up to him.  Climbing into the center of a steel girder, Leo drew his swords as they approached from opposite directions.

            Leo did not believe in killing for the sake of killing; murder by any name was a foul blot on the soul, but he was not a stranger to death.  If he could avoid taking a life that was always his preference because every killing blow became a deep red stain on his spirit.  Cleaning those stains required hours of meditation and some always lingered, haunting him in his dreams.

            Even two on one it was obvious that Leonardo was the better swordsman but the pair of Foot ninjas would not back down.  Perhaps death was favorable to what Karai offered as the prize for failure; if that was so then she had indeed become the evil Shredder incarnate.

            Expertly balanced on the girder, Leo parried simultaneous blows, shoving the ninja on his right backwards as their swords scraped together.  As the man teetered and then corrected his footing, Leo rushed the ninja on his left, pushing aside his opponent’s sword hand.

            With quick mincing steps the Foot ninja gave ground, his sword sweeping back down at Leo’s head.  A flip of the wrist turned Leo’s sword so that he caught the strike on the flat of his sword and then his second katana plowed a deep furrow across the ninja’s midriff.

            For a moment the dead man simply stood there, his eyes wide in astonishment.  Leo did not wait to watch his fall, immediately turning to meet the first ninja who was intent on skewering the turtle.

            Leo faked a counter move and then at the last possible second, leapt skyward instead.  As the ninja rushed beneath him, Leo twisted in mid-air and kicked his opponent between his shoulder blades, sending the man plummeting.

            Landing gracefully, Leo turned his attention to a new set of attackers as they moved to overpower him.  He had no illusions about the possibility of escape; if the opportunity presented itself he would take it.  Concentrating on the fight was the best way to force an opportunity.

            Battling with every ounce of his skill and focus, Leo cut a bloody swath out of the Foot ninjas.  When it looked as though he might be overwhelmed, Leo used the back of a collapsing ninja as a springboard up to the next floor.

            When he reached that level, Leo sheathed one katana so that he could get a handhold on a support beam, using that to scurry even further up.  If he could just find a length of rope or wire left behind by the workers, he could swing down from the building, the quicker descent sure to buy him enough time to get away from his pursuers.

            On the floor just below the top, Leo finally spotted several lengths of support rope coiled on top of a girder.  There was just enough time for him to tie one off and jump, if he moved fast enough.

            Halfway to the rope, several puffs of smoke appeared along girders on all sides of him and Leo came to a sudden stop.  When the smoke cleared, Leo saw that he was surrounded by Foot Elite.

            Shredder’s Elite Guard had nearly killed Leonardo once; they represented the most accomplished ninjas in the Foot Clan.  It had taken an arduous voyage of self-discovery and the tutelage of the Ancient One for Leo to best them at their next encounter, but it had been no easy task.

            They had sworn their allegiance to Karai after the Turtles had been instrumental in her father’s supposed demise.  When Shredder returned and was subsequently banished, Karai had gone mad with her need for vengeance.  She had pushed her entire clan into becoming better fighters and Leo had no illusions that the Elite’s abilities hadn’t improved as well.

            Leo’s chances for affecting an escape had just dropped to near zero.  The best he could hope for was to die fighting in order to avoid capture.  If he let them take him alive, Karai would use him to draw his family into a trap, and that was something that Leo would not allow to happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Raph watched as his brothers lost track of his blood trail and dropped out of sight, presumably into the alley to see if they could pick it up from there.  While he waited for them to once more come into view, he tore strips from the towel he’d stolen, wading them up and carefully plugging the entry and exit points of the wound above his hip.

            It would have hurt more if Raph thought about it, but he was too preoccupied with the progress of his impromptu plan.  He knew his brothers wouldn’t stop looking for him, not now, not when they had no idea how badly he was injured.

            From his vantage point he saw the Foot begin to converge on the neighborhood and he smiled grimly.  Raph knew that Karai would take his invitation hook, line, and sinker if he used Leo as the bait.  Big brother was the one she wanted; he was her obsession, her ‘white whale’.  Raph wasn’t sure if it was because she hated Leo or because she loved him; either way she behaved exactly as a woman scorned and would never be satisfied until either Leo was dead, or she was.

            It was Raph’s intention that the stalemate would come to an end tonight.  Without Karai, the Foot would fall apart, just as they’d done when the Shredder had been destroyed.

            Raph was confident that he and his brothers could hold off the Foot long enough for Leo to confront Karai.  With the prospect of his younger brothers being overwhelmed by Karai’s clan, Raph was sure Leo would stand and fight.  Karai would not call her ninjas off as long as she breathed and Leo would have to kill her, something Raph had no doubt his brother was skilled enough to do.

            Tying the remaining towel strips into a makeshift bandage, Raph fastened it around his hips in order to pull the sliced skin together.  He’d lost a lot of blood and knew he’d start feeling the effects of that soon, but by then he hoped to have helped his brothers dispatch the Foot clan for once and for all.

            The entire time he was performing first aid on himself, Raph had been scanning the street and roofs for his brothers.  They should have appeared by now; he’d seen Karai order her ninjas into the sewers.  Frowning, Raph climbed out of the cupola and crept to the edge of the roof for a better view of the street.

            As soon as he saw Hun’s car Raph realized he’d made a grave miscalculation.

            Raph was sure he’d left the Dragons chasing their own tails far from this locale and was even more positive that Karai wouldn’t want to share the turtle’s capture with Hun.  In none of the scenarios Raph had imagined would the Foot and Purple Dragons join forces to effectively pin his family down.

            With a growl that expressed both pain and fear, Raph leaped over to the next building, trying to see where Hun was going.  The long black car rapidly approached the closed gate of a construction yard, ramming right through it rather than stopping.  Raph instantly surveyed the yard, seeing dozens of Purple Dragons standing around, all of them looking up.

            Following their gaze, what Raph saw nearly stopped his heart.  Leo was trapped near the top floor of an unfinished high rise, balancing precariously on steel girders while he battled a contingent of Foot Elite.

            Below them, swarming all over the remainder of the building, were what seemed to be the entire Foot clan.  There was no sign of Don, Mikey, or their father; Leonardo was fighting all alone.

            Cursing himself for a fool, Raph started to run towards the construction site, ignoring the sharp pain piercing his side as he moved.  It was for this reason exactly that Master Splinter had long ago decided that Leo should lead their team; Raphael had and always would be too impulsive and too damn cocksure of his own skill.

            It hadn’t ever really mattered to Raph because he figured the repercussions of his actions would fall solely on him.  Now it looked like his stupid, fucked up plan was going to kill Leo.

            Raph was determined to get there in time to try and take his brother’s place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            “He’s not here!” Mikey exclaimed in an anxious voice.

            Don squatted inside the cupola and held up a piece of a blood stained towel.  “He was,” he told his brother.

            “Where do you suppose he went?” Mikey asked, stepping out of the cupola and onto the roof.

            Don joined him and they both scrutinized the surrounding skyline, hoping to spot their errant brother.  A movement on a roof top a couple of blocks over caught Don’s eye and he elbowed Mikey, pointing towards what he’d seen once he had the younger turtle’s attention.

            Both of them stared, afraid even to blink.  In a moment they saw it again; a large, emerald green form leaping from one roof to another.

            “Shell,” Mikey cursed, starting quickly after Raph with Don right on his tail.

TBC………….


	10. Part 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,929  
> Rated: R adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            It was easy enough for Raph to jump the fence and enter the construction yard unseen; the Foot and Purple Dragons were all focused on Leonardo.

            While Raph’s oldest brother battled the Foot Elite, Hun sat in his black town car, a phone to his ear.  It didn’t take much for Raph to figure out that there were still people searching for the rest of the turtles.

            Raph gave Hun only a cursory thought.  What held the hot headed turtle’s attention was the one person who he hated even more than the leader of the Dragons, and that was Karai, the new Shredder.

            She was standing next to Hun’s open car window, her head tilted back as she watched her Elites attempt to swarm Leonardo.  Even from his position thirty yards away Raph could see the avid expression on her face.  Karai was simply waiting for her people to tire Leo out and bring him down so that she could have the honor of delivering the final blow.

            It was Leo’s place as leader to destroy the bitch, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  Raph knew he could pull a good part of her army off his brother if he put Karai in mortal danger.  Killing her while he was at it would be an added bonus.

            Looking around the yard nearest his hiding place Raph spotted a large front loader parked not far away.  Dashing across open yard to get to it, Raph was glad that everyone was focused on the fight overhead.

            Raph climbed into the driver’s seat and leaned down to take a look underneath it.  Just as he hoped, the ignition key was tucked into the padding.  Saying a silent thank you for the fact that he wouldn’t have to waste time hot wiring the heavy piece of machinery, Raph started the loader.

            Shifting it into gear, Raph sent the loader rolling forward at its top speed.  Focused on the black car and its payload, Raph ignored the first of the warning shouts, noting that they were drowned out by the crowd yelling encouragements to the Elite ninjas.

            One of the Purple Dragons finally gave up trying to get Hun’s attention and instead raced towards the moving loader.  With a frantic leap, he landed in the cab next to Raph and tried to grab the steering wheel.  Lifting one hand from the wheel, Raph punched the man square in the center of his face, smashing his nose in a spray of blood.  As he started to collapse, Raph turned in his seat just enough to lift his leg and kick the Dragon out of the loader.

            When he looked back towards Hun and Karai, Raph realized he was almost on top of them.  Quickly manipulating the hydraulic levers, Raph lowered the bucket, keeping its forks high enough off the ground so they wouldn’t catch on anything.

            It was then that the pair noticed the loader coming towards them.  Karai’s eyes widened as she looked past the machine into the cab and saw who was behind the wheel.

            Their eyes locked and Raph could almost see the calculation in hers.  Shouting something at Hun, Karai jumped onto the hood of the car and then leaped with gazelle like grace far away from it just as the forks dug into the car’s undercarriage.

            Hun had just begun to open his door when the loader slammed into the car.  The impact wrenched the door out of his hand and flung him against the seat.  When Raph lifted the bucket it caused the open car door to slam shut again and Hun’s head careened into the window.

            The window glass shattered under the forceful contact with Hun’s skull.  Dazed, the giant of a man turned his head to look at Raph, just able to see him over the lip of the bucket.

            About ten yards away was a large concrete lined containment area, the pit easily fifteen feet deep.  Raph aimed the loader towards it, half dragging, half carrying the heavy car.  When Hun grabbed at the door handle again, he saw where Raph was taking him.

            Hun scrambled towards the door closest to Raph, but it was jammed shut by the bucket.  In an instant, Hun pulled a gun from his belt, breaking the door glass with the butt of the weapon and firing a wild shot at his nemesis.

            Raph ducked as soon as he saw the gun barrel but continued to push the car towards the containment area.  Hun’s driver kicked the front windshield out and scrambled onto the hood of the car, sliding over it and onto the ground.

            Growling in anger, Raph jerked the lever, making the bucket jump.  The hard jolt hurled Hun against the door, forcing him to drop the gun.  In a last desperate attempt at escape, Hun turned around in his seat and kicked the glass out of the back window.

            Once more Raph slapped the hydraulic levers, making the bucket jounce just as Hun tried to squeeze through the window.  The rocking of the car sent Hun flopping against the seat as the driver’s side of the vehicle slid over the containment wall.

            Raph saw Hun’s head come up as the rest of the car was forced over into open space.  Pressing his foot against the gas pedal one last time, Raph leaped out of the cab, rolling over and up in time to see the car and the front loader plummet into the containment area.

            The last thing Raph heard before turning to look for Karai was Hun yelling, “Oh crud!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Don and Mikey lost sight of Raph but the sound of fighting told them where they’d probably find him.

            Following the noise, the brothers found the construction site, quickly noting that Leo was near the top of the building and was fighting for his life.

            Pointing towards the fence, Mikey led the way, nimbly leaping over the top and ducking down to hide behind a pile of dredged up dirt.  Don was next to him in a second, shrugging his duffel bag off his shoulder so it wouldn’t hinder his ability to fight.

            “Do you see Raph?” Don asked.

            “No, but you know he’s here someplace,” Mikey said, his eyes on Leo.  “Raph’s the least of our concerns right now; we’ve gotta do something about Leo.”

            Amidst the noise made by all the shouting the sound of an engine coming to life drew the pair’s attention.  They both looked towards the source of the sound and saw Raphael driving the front loader towards Hun’s car.

            “I guess we know where he is now,” Don said dryly.

            “Remember what Leo said about getting Raph out of here?” Mikey asked.  “Somehow I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as knocking the big guy out.”

            As Mikey spoke, Don dug into his bag and pulled out a small cardboard box and a Nerf gun.

            “I think it’s time we take the Purple Dragons out of the equation,” Don said with a grin.

            “I don’t think shooting foam darts at them is going to help,” Mikey said sarcastically.

            Don opened the box, revealing a row of refashioned darts made of plastic.  He began feeding them into the Nerf gun, loading all six of its chambers.  Mikey reached into the box to grab one of the darts, examining the tip closely.

            “I redesigned the gun so it would shoot farther and carry a slightly heavier load,” Don told his brother, taking the dart out of Mikey’s hand.  “The tip carries a substance that disperses into the air upon impact.”

            “Fancy smoke pellets are still just smoke pellets, Donatello,” Mikey said.  “Even with the element of surprise, there are way too many of them to fight on our own and it’ll take about ten seconds for the Foot to join in.”

            “These aren’t smoke pellets,” Don said, getting down on one knee and taking aim.  “The tips contain an anesthetic gas.”

            “Oh.  Oh!” Mikey said as he began to understand.  “Will it take out the Foot too?” he asked hopefully.

            “I’m afraid not,” Don answered.  “Their masks protect them from airborne particulates.  But at least we’ll get half of the bad guys.”

            Mikey turned his head to watch Raph nearing Hun’s car.  “Start shooting before they notice what Raph’s up to and start running all over the place.”

            With a quick nod, Don fired off six shots in rapid succession.  Each dart hit one of the Dragons, exploding as it touched them.  The gas expanded into the surrounding air, quickly knocking out any men in the vicinity of the one who’d been shot.

            In a few seconds the majority of the Purple Dragons lay unconscious on the ground.  A loud crash drew Don and Mikey’s attention and they saw Hun’s car and the front loader both tumble into the containment pit.

            Standing nearby was Raph, his sais in hand and his teeth bared.  It was obvious he was looking for someone and both of his brothers started forward, intent on reaching him before anything else happened.

            They’d gone two steps when Karai came charging through the dust that had lifted from the bottom of the containment area, her sword drawn and aimed at Raph’s back.

            “Behind you!” Don yelled, starting to run.

            Raph spun on his heel and caught Karai’s weapon with one of his own.  As he wrenched her arm sideways, Raph jabbed at her stomach with his other sai.  Ever agile, Karai jumped back, twisting away from Raph and sliding her katana free from the tines on Raph’s sai.

            When she glanced up, Karai spotted the other two turtles barreling towards her.  Swinging her katana at Raph to force him to leap aside, Karai shouted, “Foot ninjas, to me!”

            The sound of her voice carried across the construction yard which was now mostly silent.  Her loyal retainers turned from their attempts to corner Leonardo and saw that their mistress was under attack.  Almost as one, the Foot began to swarm towards the turtles and Karai, leaving the Elite to deal with Leo.

            Don and Mikey spun around to meet the attack, their weapons out and moving as they attempted to keep the majority of the ninjas off of their hot headed brother.  Raph’s hands were more than full with trying to take down Karai, who was fighting with a viciousness born of her fanatical devotion to a father who had been the embodiment of evil.

            Twirling his nunchaku at speeds too fast for the eye to follow, Mikey landed blow after blow, taking a few of the Foot out of the fight but mostly just blocking their attacks.  They were coming at him fast and hard and the best Mikey could do was maintain a defensive position separating the Foot from their leader.

            “Having fun yet, Mikey?” Don yelled, batting aside a manriki as it came at his head.

            “Oh yeah, you know it!” Mikey called back as he ducked a kama and then sent the ninja holding it flying with a kick to the stomach.  “Were there always this many Foot?”

            A ninja grabbed Don’s bo and tried to tug it from his grip, but the turtle fell backwards, rolling on his carapace as he flipped the man into the dirt.  Scrambling to his feet quickly, Don jabbed another ninja in the chest and spun his bo around to slam the end into another ninja’s temple.

            “I think they’ve been recruiting!” Don shouted.  “Mikey!”

            He lost sight of his brother as a mass of Foot ninjas came between them and despite his usually cool mind and years of training Donatello began to feel a twinge of panic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Even as he fought, Leonardo was alert to everything going on around him.  The Elite were trying to incapacitate him, not kill him, and that could only mean that Karai wanted to destroy him herself.

            Incapacitation meant anything from being knocked unconscious to losing a limb, and to the blue banded turtle leader none of those sounded good.  Near the top of an unfinished building with only steel girders separating him from the ground, Leo felt his best option for dealing with the Elite was to keep moving.  If he kept them spaced out he had a fighting chance, but once they ganged up on him his chances for survival were slim.

            It wasn’t just the Elite he had to avoid; below him every floor of the building was teeming with Foot ninjas, intent on preventing his escape.  On the ground was a large cluster of Purple Dragons, yelling for his blood.

            Slipping under the axe swinging at his arm, Leo slammed his shoulder into the nearest Elite.  The man danced expertly on his toes, retaining his balance as he clutched at Leo, who slid past him and raced for a vertical support beam.  Another Elite guard appeared in front of him, twin bladed sword spinning in readiness and Leo jumped from the girder, catching the bottom edge at the last minute and swinging his body across several feet of open space as he grabbed at a different girder.

            Squatting, Leo sprang into the air as an Elite jabbed towards him with a trident.  Coming down on the staff, the turtle’s weight pulled the guard forward and Leo bounced up onto his shoulders, flipping in mid-air before landing halfway across the building.

            Foot movement on the floor below him drew Leo’s attention for the briefest of moments.  The ninjas were sliding down from the building, leaving Leo to the Elite.

            Sword up, Leo stopped a spear meant for his shoulder and then back flipped away from the Elite.  Mentally locating each of his four opponents, Leo stole another glance downwards.

            Leo’s breath caught in his throat.  Raphael was battling Karai and the Foot ninja were running towards them.  Suddenly Leo spotted Don and Mikey racing to intercept the ninjas, immediately understanding they were trying to keep them off Raph.

            The ground was littered with unconscious Purple Dragons and Leo knew that Don had accomplished that, but even with them out of the equation, the numbers were not in his brother’s favor.  Even as Leo leaped from beam to beam to avoid the Elite, he could see that his family was being overrun.

            Leo had to get down there and he had to do it quickly.  A manriki came out of nowhere, the chain wrapping around his ankle before it was yanked hard enough to send Leo sprawling on the sixteen inch wide beam.

            The first thing Leo had to do though was get away from the Elite.  Preferably while he was still alive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Dark eyes followed the ninjas he’d been trailing, so close he could have tapped the last one in the column on his shoulder.  These men had much to learn about the art of concealment, but it was not Master Splinter’s job to teach them.  They would discover their failings soon enough.

            The dozen Foot ninjas who had been left unconscious on the sewer floor had already become acquainted with their first lesson.  One by one Master Splinter had picked them off, so silently that their comrades had no idea what had befallen them.  The aged Master ninja had need of only a few to lead him to his sons, the rest were removed so that they could cause no damage this night.

            Ahead of them the bright light of a street lamp shone down through an open manhole cover and the remaining line of Foot ninjas ascended the ladder.  Master Splinter clung to the shadows, listening to the sounds of shouting coming from overhead.  Approaching the ladder, Master Splinter lifted his head to sniff the air and once assured that no one lingered above him, he climbed up to the street.

            Master Splinter swiftly faded into the shadows along a sidewalk.  Surveying the area, he saw that he had come out near a construction site and that Foot ninjas were flowing onto the grounds from all directions.

            His sharp eyes spotted the flash of green and blue near the top of the unfinished building, his recognition of Leonardo coming a second before he realized who his son was fighting.  Given another set of circumstances, Master Splinter had no doubt that his eldest could defeat Shredder’s Elite guard, but his position was not advantageous.

            Moving forward, Master Splinter easily bounded over the fence and ran lightly across the open ground, coming to a stop near a dump truck.  Even as he watched, another tableau unfolded before his eyes; Raphael ramming Hun’s car and driving it into a deep pit, leaping out in time to face Karai.

            At almost the same moment, small bursts of smoke exploded amongst the gathered Purple Dragons and they immediately keeled over into unconsciousness.  The thought that Donatello was nearby was confirmed only a moment later when both he and Michelangelo sprang from hiding to face the Foot ninjas who were trying to come to Karai’s aid.

            Master Splinter felt a surge of pride as his sons beat back the Foot, keeping them away from Raphael, but it was obvious they would soon be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.  At least their tactics had pulled the Foot down from the building, leaving only the Elites for Leonardo to deal with.

            It was time to join the fight and once more change the odds.  Master Splinter came out of hiding and raced towards his children, prepared to show their enemies what a true Master was capable of.

TBC………………


	11. Part 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,767  
> Rated: R adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Karai had always thought she was the better ninja.

            It didn’t matter with whom she competed, Karai’s skill was unmatched by anyone except her adopted father.  She had shown her gratitude to him for taking her from the filth and starvation of abandonment by working harder than anyone in her new clan.

            Karai often went without sleep, without food, to master a technique in order to please her father, letting the bitterness and anger at her mistreatment by her birth parents give her the strength she required.

            Oroku Saki offered her no kind words urging her to rest, no praise for her accomplishments.  What he gave her was a place in society, a position that allowed her to hold her head up high.  He restored the honor and dignity that was stripped from her and she gave him her undying loyalty.

            Without her savior, Karai would have died on the streets like so many other abandoned children.  If she had been lucky, death would have been swift.  If unlucky, she would have become a prostitute; used and beaten until she was no longer desirable.

            Offering her allegiance to the Foot clan lifted Karai above the common street urchin.  Oroku Saki made her human again, he was her true father in the sense that his rescuing her was her rebirth.

            Karai had believed that Leonardo understood.  When he had questioned her honor she had tried to explain how deep her ties to Oroku Saki really were.

            Now her father was gone and the mutated turtles were responsible for that.  Karai’s soul ached at her loss; she may not have agreed with the Shredder about everything he did, but it was not her place to question.  She existed because of him and that was all that mattered.

            Her belief that she would always be the better ninja by virtue of her sheer determination was shaken by Leonardo.  She had beaten him when they’d first met and was sure she would always have that ability.  Karai did not realize that he had held back, wanting to find a peaceful solution to their disagreements. 

            After she had attacked his family with everything she had, just barely missing her chance to annihilate them, Leonardo had come for her.  Their fight was short; all of her incredible skill, her anger and desire for vengeance were nothing to the Hamato clan leader.

            Karai’s humiliation was complete when she was forced to her knees to accept defeat.  In that moment Karai had asked for death but even then Leonardo would not give her any satisfaction.

            There had been a time when they had worked together, even a time when Karai’s admiration for Leonardo seemed to be growing into something more.  When he had destroyed the Shredder and stolen her dignity, Karai felt as though she had been betrayed by a lover, and like any woman scorned, her desire for vengeance was overwhelming.

            No matter what her confusion was over her feelings for Leonardo, Karai was not so hindered by her emotions when it came to his brother Raphael.  There was no love lost between the two; from the moment they met in that first roof top fight it was obvious that Raphael distrusted her and always would.  It was also obvious that he wanted her dead.

            In their previous meetings the only reason Karai had not dispatched the red banded turtle was because of Leonardo’s intervention.  Working directly with the leader of her rival clan had made it unnecessary for her to deal with his brother and Karai’s respect for Leonardo had stayed her hand.

            Karai was not so hindered now.  It was obvious that Raphael had chosen to bypass tradition in an attempt to kill her himself.  She did not know how Leonardo could have lost such control over his brother but the opportunity to cause him more pain by killing said brother was too good to pass up.

            While Karai’s confidence in her abilities against Leonardo had taken a beating, the Foot leader did not have those same qualms when battling Raphael.  She was sure she was still the better fighter and had only called her ninjas to her so that they could capture the remaining turtle brothers.

            As usual she could see Raphael’s anger as they fought, the force of it adding to his already incredible strength.  Karai knew it also made him rash and in the past she had always taken advantage of his lapses, tripping him up or throwing him out of balance.

            Something was different tonight.  Karai had heard the rumors that Raphael had gone off the reservation; on the few occasions in the last month that Karai had need to do business with Hun she had certainly heard him rant about what the turtle was doing to his gang.  It had been difficult for her to put stock in what was being said because she had never known any of the turtles to be brutal.

            She could see the truth in his eyes.  Under the normal fire there was a coldness that told the story of a soul who was lost.  Karai knew that look, she had seen it in her own reflection just before Oroku Saki found her.

            Karai and Raphael circled one other for a moment, each taking the others measure and registering any changes that they saw.  The turtle was larger than she remembered, taller and more solid than he was at their last encounter.  She had felt the raw power of his muscles just a second earlier when he’d so easily jerked her arm aside.

            With a snarl she charged, her katana lifted above her head as she moved in close.  Slicing downward with all her strength, Karai attempted to get past Raphael’s guard, but he was quick to block the move with a single sai.  The tip of his second weapon nearly took her throat out before Karai back flipped away.

            Reaching behind her, Karai let the end of her manriki slide into her hand and then threw it at him, the movement smooth and seamless.  Just before it reached him, Raph turned to the side and caught the chain, looping it once around his wrist before giving it a good hard yank.

            Taken by surprise at Raphael’s speed, Karai was lifted off her feet, flying towards the turtle and the sai that waited to gut her.  Only the endless hours of training saved her as she instinctively released the manriki.  Conscious thought would have taken too much time; as soon as Karai let go of the chain, she dropped into a crouch.

            Even then Raphael seemed to have a sixth sense about her intentions.  As she cut sideways at his legs Karai discovered that he had already bounded out of her reach.  Springing forward, Karai slammed into the turtle feet first.

            The impact should have thrown him off balance, but instead Raphael moved backwards with the blow, falling lightly on his carapace and rolling into a standing position.

            Karai quickly flung herself away from him as Raphael came at her, both sais jabbing at different positions on her body.  Keeping pace with him required her to push her body to its limits, her sword moving as swiftly as she was able to wield it.

            He was so much faster than Karai had anticipated.  She had miscalculated gravely in thinking that Raphael had given up speed for bulk; if anything he was nearly as quick as Leonardo.  And just like Leonardo, Raphael seemed to anticipate her every move.

            Worry was not something a ninja could afford to indulge in during a battle, but Karai’s cold hatred of the red banded turtle was beginning to slip, replaced by a feeling she’d only had once in her life.  That one time was when Leonardo defeated her and let her live.

            As she stared into the brightly gleaming eyes of the turtle across from her, Karai knew that Raphael would not show the same mercy.  Her previous advantage over him was gone; Karai now understood that she was not the better ninja.

            Karai flipped and turned, dodging and evading Raphael’s onslaught as much as possible.  Every time Karai saw the slightest opening she attacked, chancing the deadly thrust of cold metal as she searched for a weakness.

            Arms straining with weariness, Karai slashed at Raphael’s midriff as he charged.  Her muscles protested the swift movement, but she had endured worse and ignored them in her determination to destroy the turtle.

            Raphael’s sai slid effortlessly along the steel of her blade, arresting the sword’s movement.  Her katana caught in the wing tips of his defensive weapon and with a harsh sideways twist of his massive wrist Raphael snapped her blade in two.

            A snarl of frustration slipped past Karai’s lips, followed by a yelp of pain as the point on his other sai plowed a trench along her forearm, barely missing her wrist.  Flinging the handle of her broken sword at his face, Karai sprang backwards to escape him, landing on all fours.

            It was then she noticed the splotch of red on his side and realized in a flash that what she had thought was some kind of belt was actually a crude bandage.  Raphael was injured, and from the amount of blood beginning to seep through the cloth, it was very bad.

            A wave of fresh energy rushed into her system as she pushed off from the ground and raced towards him.  From her belt she grabbed two shuriken, launching them at his body as she ran.

            Raphael lifted his arms, easily batting them aside and Karai simultaneously bounded into the air, her feet stretching out in front of her.  With unerring accuracy her heel struck him directly atop his wound.

            Staggering backwards with a loud grunt of pain, Raphael lowered his right arm and pressed it against his injury.  His grimace told Karai that the wound was indeed as bad as she thought it might be and a surge of giddy glee almost overwhelmed her.

            Raphael was listing to one side, blood dripping from beneath his arm and running down his thigh.  As Karai watched, the color seemed to drain from him and he stumbled in his attempt to remain upright.

            Drawing her tanto, Karai lunged at the large turtle, feeling that the tide had suddenly turned in her favor.  Eyes focused on his neck and intent on delivering a fatal blow, Karai momentarily forgot to remain cautious.

            Raphael lashed out with his left hand, fingers draped over the tines of his sai.  Karai saw the pommel end of his weapon coming at her head at the last second, her heels digging into the dirt in an attempt to stop her forward momentum.

            It was the only thing that saved her from sudden death.  The pommel still connected with Karai’s forehead hard enough to knock her down, but if she hadn’t slowed he would have shattered her skull.

            Karai landed in the dirt with a loud thump, a cloud of dust lifting around her form.  The world seemed to fold in on itself as the edges of her vision blackened and her body felt as though it was spinning.

            She felt rather than heard the thud of Raphael’s approaching footsteps and knew she had to move.  Karai recognized the symptoms of concussion; her ears were ringing and her stomach lurched, but if she stayed where she was he was going to kill her.

            Time seemed to slip for a moment, a fog misting her vision.  Blinking her eyes, Karai saw Raphael leaning over her.

            Pure reflex made her stab at him and by some miracle Karai was still clutching her tanto.  Her sub-conscious mind guided her aim and Karai sliced into Raphael’s already injured side.

            Raphael jumped back reflexively and Karai rolled onto her stomach before struggling to get up.  Dizzy and staggering, Karai managed two steps before falling to her knees.  Above the pounding in her head she could hear Raphael’s heavy breathing, the sound urging her to push herself up again.

            Another sound registered as well, her Foot ninjas were nearby and her body seemed to turn towards them of its own accord, automatically seeking their assistance.  Standing between her and salvation was Raphael’s brothers, battling to keep her clan from interfering in her fight.

            Even in her present state, Karai could see that her ninjas were about to take the turtles down.  A cruel smile curled her lips and she lurched towards them, knowing her men would finish off Raphael as well.

            Disoriented and wobbling on her feet, Karai barely registered that someone else had suddenly joined the fight.  A gray blur flew across her vision and she blinked, trying to focus on what she was seeing.

            The momentary feeling of victory drained away swiftly and completely the second she recognized Splinter.  In the span of just a couple of seconds, a half dozen of her ninja fell to his onslaught, the turtle’s rat master moving almost faster than the wind.

            A nearly surreal feeling came over Karai and her knees buckled.  Falling forward onto her hands, the gravel scratched the skin from her knuckles and reminded her that she was still holding her tanto.

            From the corner of her eye Karai saw a solid emerald green leg shuffling towards her and she shot forward like a horse from a starting gate.  To die in battle was honorable but not like this; she would not fall at the hands of one who held a lesser station in life.  She was the leader of the Foot clan and only another leader could kill her.

            Breaking into a run, Karai raced towards the entrance of the construction yard.  She swayed from side to side as she ran, her strides short and legs threatening to tangle.  When she fell, Karai pushed herself back up again, feet sliding in the gravel as she desperately fought to continue moving.

            Looking over her shoulder Karai saw Raphael jogging after her, his entire right side red with blood.  The streetlights reflected off his gold eyes and made them glow so brightly it seemed that fire had erupted from them, its blaze trailing along either sides of his head and leaving a dancing reminder in his wake.

            Her heart tripping like a jackhammer in her chest, Karai felt true terror for the first time in her life.  Death was stalking her and she knew that nothing short of a miracle would stop Raphael from killing her now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Engaged in the fight of their lives, Donatello and Michelangelo held back what seemed to be the entire Foot clan.  Behind him Don could hear the occasional shrill sound of Karai’s voice and knew Raphael was still battling her.

            He could only hope that Raph would take her down quickly.  Though they had managed to keep the Foot at bay for a few minutes, it was obvious that they were fighting a losing battle.

            Don heard Mikey cry out and saw his youngest brother go down under a swarm of ninjas.  Yelling, Don swung his bo as hard and as fast as he could, trying to plow a path to his brother’s side.  Before he could reach Mikey, a ninja jumped on his back and two more grabbed his arms.

            As Don began to buckle beneath their weight, a familiar voice cut through the other sounds and suddenly Don was free.  Whipping around, the genius turtle saw his father leap into the air and slam his feet into a nearby ninja’s head.

            Following in Master Splinter’s wake, Don watched as  his father laid waste to the Foot ninja, his hands moving too fast for Don to follow.  Master Splinter’s stick bounced off the skulls of the ninja who were holding Mikey down and the youngest bounded to his feet, a grin on his face and his nunchucks spinning.

            Don took a second to glance over his shoulder, wanting to keep Raph in his sights.  When he didn’t see his brother, Don turned all the way around and ran to where he’d last spotted Raph and Karai.

            Blood splatters covered the ground and Don’s throat closed up.  Frantically looking all around him, Don saw Karai staggering towards the broken gate with a badly bleeding Raphael right behind her.

            Without a seconds hesitation, Don shouted, “I’m going after Raph!”

            He didn’t wait for Master Splinter’s permission, moving too fast to have heard him anyway.  Unless he could reach Raph and Karai in time, Don knew in his heart that one or both of them would die tonight.

TBC……………….


	12. Part 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,835  
> Rated: R adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Leo severed the manriki chain with one quick sweep of his katana.  Kicking his leg out to loosen the section of ball and chain that was still attached to his ankle, he caught the ball between his toes and flung it into the Elite guard’s face.

            The move was unexpected enough to make the Elite take his eyes off of Leo and the turtle followed his advantage by charging the man.

            A hiss of surprise escaped the Elite as Leo’s sword swung towards his head.  The guard lifted his heavy axe to block the katana and Leo’s second weapon sheathed itself in the man’s gut.

            The axe dropped from lifeless fingers as Leo yanked his katana free from the Elite’s stomach.  Shoving the body off the girder, Leo spun around so that he could locate the other three.

            An angry shout drew his attention to the Elite on the metal beam to his left.  As the man twirled his spear, Leo felt a tingling sensation on his neck and ducked under the double bladed sword that was aimed at his head.

            His surprise attack thwarted, the Elite began rotating his weapon like an oar, slicing at Leo with both ends of the sword.  Parrying the blows as fast as he could, Leo slid his feet backwards on the metal beam, trying to put space between them.  He knew the other two Elites were going to rush him and that he needed to keep moving before they boxed him in.

            Timing the turn of the double blades, Leo waited for a split second opening between swings and then executed a perfect front snap kick.  His foot hit the center of the Elite’s staff, snapping it in two and throwing the guard down onto the girder.

            By the time the Elite had flipped back to his feet, Leo had sheathed his weapons and was swinging to the next metal beam.  He couldn’t keep up the running fight for much longer, taking out one guard had eaten up too much time and his family needed him.

            Leo took the opportunity for a quick glance down as he danced from beam to beam and saw Mikey being swarmed by Foot ninjas.  Don tried to reach him and was overwhelmed as well.

            “No!” Leo shouted, slamming to a stop in horror.

            That’s when he saw the small gray body appear out of the shadows as if by magic, tail whipping behind the still agile form.  Leo had time to see his father barrel into the nearest Foot soldier before remembering his own precarious position.

            When his family fought, they fought together.  Leo decided he’d had enough of being stuck so high above the fray.  With the Foot on the ground and only three Elite’s chasing him, Leo’s mind reverted back to his original escape plan.

            Leo shot a quick glance towards the coils of rope to confirm they hadn’t been dislodged during his running fight.  One of the Elite suddenly landed on the metal beam in front of him and thrust his spear towards Leo’s moving form.

            Rather than try and dodge the weapon, Leo spun on the beam, lifting one leg in a roundhouse kick.  When his body turned, the spear head slid past his plastron and Leo’s foot connected solidly with the pole.

            The spear flew out of the Elite’s grip and Leo leaped over him while the man was still trying to regain his balance.  Running full tilt, Leo jumped high and hit a vertical support with his feet, kicking off hard enough to fly over another adversary.

            As the Elite stabbed at the turtle with his trident, Leo curled in on himself and the trident skidded off his carapace.  Sticking his landing, Leo dashed forward and snapped up a coil of rope.

            Draping the coils over one shoulder, Leo jogged across the metal beam as he tied one end of the rope into a lasso.

            Directly behind him the trident carrying Elite sprinted across the girder in an attempt to catch Leo.  Another Elite dashed across the beam to Leo’s right as they tried to get him between them.

            Spinning the lasso, Leo quickly turned so that he was running backwards and tossed the rope over the trident Elite’s head.  Yanking hard as the rope settled across the man’s biceps, Leo closed the lasso, snapping the man’s arms down to his sides and forcing him to drop his weapon.

            Shaking the remainder of the coil from his shoulder as he spun back around, Leo let out a length of rope, holding tightly to a section of it as he approached the nearest vertical support beam.  He could feel the Elite pulling backwards just as Leo’s hand caught the edge of the support.

            Twirling completely around the support beam, Leo let go of it to grasp the rope with both hands.  Free falling, his weight jerked the Elite off his feet and slammed him face first into the beam.

            With the Elite’s body as his anchor, Leo’s fast drop took him to the fifth floor of the building.  When the rope snapped to a stop, Leo swung onto the floor and spared a look down to see how his family was doing.

            Below him, Master Splinter and Mikey still engaged a large contingent of the Foot clan.  There was no sign of his other two brothers and Leo frantically scanned the construction site.

            When he finally spotted them he saw that Don was rushing after Raph, who was several yards ahead of him and making for the gate.  From the way Raph was moving, Leo could tell he was beginning to succumb to his injury, but moving with an intent that was puzzling.

            A second later Leo understood what Raph was doing when he saw Karai climbing a fire escape on the building nearest the construction yard.  She was not moving with her usual speed or finesse and Leo could only guess she was hurt.

            Wasting no more time, Leo began to work his way down to the ground.  Raph was trying to kill Karai, Don was no doubt attempting to save Raph from himself, and Leo’s father and youngest brother were taking on almost the entirety of the Foot clan by themselves.

            His duty was to the two family members nearest him.  Leo could only hope that Don didn’t just reach Raph in time, but could find a way to get through to him as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Raph had been wounded many times in his life, several times quite seriously.  He recognized the signs of extreme blood loss and knew he was pushing himself too hard.

            Another injury he knew a lot about was concussion and as hard as he’d hit Karai there was no doubt in his mind that she was suffering from one.  He only had to track her erratic flight path to know she was dizzy and out of sorts.

            With only a tanto to defend her and a head injury slowing her motor skills, Raph was convinced that he could end Karai’s life before the loss of blood ended his.  The victory would give him satisfaction in death and more importantly, peace of mind at leaving his brothers.  In spite of everything he had put his family through, protecting them had always been his primary motivation.

            Karai made it through the construction yard gate and across the street before he could catch her.  Moving as fast as his injury would allow, Raph kept his eyes on her as he closed the distance between them.

            Raph saw her pause for a moment and look around as though trying to find some assistance.  Her ninjas were still fully engaged in fighting Raph’s family and he could tell she realized this when she bolted towards the nearest fire escape.

            It would have been laughable if Raph was in a more humorous mood.  Karai would rather take a chance on missing a jump because of her concussion than to stop and face Raph again.

            That knowledge spurred him on and he leaped onto the bottom rung of the ladder just as Karai reached the top.  Crawling over the edge of the building on her belly, Karai paused long enough to look down at him, a contemptuous snarl evident on her face.

            Raph made it to the first landing when he heard Donatello shouting his name.  With the blood thrumming in his ears it was possible that Don had been calling him for some time and Raph hadn’t noticed.  Turning towards the sound of his brother’s voice, Raph saw Don running through the gate and coming after him.

            With an inarticulate curse, Raph returned to his pursuit, ignoring Donatello’s frantic cries.  If Don caught up to them then he could damn well watch Raph plunge his sai into Karai’s heart.  Raph was not going to be stopped now, even if it meant that he’d have to get vicious with Don.

            Even though he was light headed from blood loss, Raph was not injudicious.  Nearing the roof, he crouched low and then pushed off as hard as he could.  The powerful muscles in his legs lifted him over the edge of the building and beyond, easily clearing Karai’s head as she jumped up from her hiding spot.

            Her ambush thwarted, Karai sprinted to the side, hoping to evade her attacker.  Raph ran parallel to her, darting towards her just before she made the leap to the next building.

            With her equilibrium compromised, Karai almost didn’t clear the span between buildings.  Her foot slammed into the edge of the roof and she threw herself forward, sprawling heavily on the gravel composite.  Karai lost the grip on her tanto as her hands and chin were scraped raw, the blade sliding several feet out in front of her.

            His side screaming in pain, Raph made the jump to the next building as well.  The landing was rough; Raph’s breathing was off as a result of blood loss and he was gasping for air.

            Karai slithered forward on her belly, grasping at the tanto as her vision swam.  Her fingers closed around it and she rolled over to try and locate Raphael.

            He stood a few yards from her, legs apart and feet firmly planted.  The sais in his hands gleamed in the moonlight, matched only by the brightness of the grim smile on his face.  The glow that she’d imagined seeing in his golden eyes was there; an unholy light that foretold of her destruction.

            For almost a full second Karai’s training abandoned her and she froze, the world spinning with a dozen emerald colored turtles.  When he did not advance, Karai dug her heels into the roof and pushed herself away from him, sliding her elbows on the gravel to lend her speed.

            Karai felt the cloth rip from her sleeves as the tiny stones sliced through it and her skin as well.  Scurrying to her feet, Karai didn’t take her eyes off of her opponent.  Still Raphael did not move; his blazing eyes unblinking as they remained locked on her.  Panting harshly, Karai lifted her tanto, holding it defensively before her.

            “Raph, don’t!” Don shouted from the building they’d just left.

            Raph’s eyes darted to the side so that he could locate his brother and as soon as he did so, Karai charged.

            Her first slash was wild, driven mostly by desperation rather than skill.  Raph blocked her swing with a sai, jabbing at her center mass with the other.  Shifting her pelvis to the side kept Karai from being impaled, but one of the tines on the sai raked across her abdomen.

            Karai’s tanto slid off the metal of Raph’s weapon and she sliced downwards as she danced out of Raphael’s path.  The tip of her blade nicked his arm but didn’t slow him; Raphael kept coming at her with no seeming fear for his own safety.

            “Stop!  Raph, let her go!” Don yelled frantically.

            It was the sound of panic in Donatello’s voice that confirmed for her Raphael’s mental state.  The big turtle didn’t care if he died so long as he could kill Karai in the process.

            Blood stained his side and painted one leg red, Raphael’s foot gleaming with its wetness.  Even as his life flowed out of him Raphael did not stop, his gaze fixated on Karai and completely unnerved, she turned to run from him again.

            All concept of who she was escaped her consciousness as she raced for the side of the building.  Raphael had become the bogey from the streets of Japan, the monster that ate abandoned children.  Karai’s head pounded as a blackness began to creep around the edges of her vision, the nausea she was feeling gurgling into bile that washed into her throat.

            The last vestiges of reality clung to her as Karai stumbled but ran on, determined to distance herself from the vengeful turtle.  Nearing the edge of the roof, Karai saw right away that the roof top of the building across from her was too far for her to reach in her condition.  With the sound of Raph’s heavy footsteps coming towards her, Karai did the only thing open to her and jumped for the fire escape which was a few feet closer than the roof.

            Her fingers grazed the metal railing, clawing at it to break her fall.  Panic helped Karai to curl  her hands over the slick metal and she came to a bone jarring halt.  Above the sound of her heavy breathing and Donatello’s shouts Karai heard the familiar voices of her Elite guards.

            With no energy to climb onto the stairs, Karai clung to the fire escape and looked towards the construction yard.  When she saw three of her Elite’s and a contingent of Foot soldiers running towards her, Karai allowed a short hysterical laugh to escape her throat.

            Raph gazed down at his prey, relishing the scent of her panic.  He could almost taste the fear as it rolled off of her in waves and wondered if she had ever felt this way beneath Leo’s swords.

            The sound of feet hitting the roof on the other side of the building behind him made Raph glance back over his shoulder.  Don was running towards him and Raph turned sideways, his eyes on Karai as well as his brother.

            Lifting his sai, Raph barked, “Stay where you are!”

            Don skid to a stop, holding his bo across his plastron with both hands.  “Raph, you’re badly hurt,” he said in as clinical a voice as he could manage.  “You need to come with me so I can stop your bleeding.”

            Raph’s upper lip twitched in the semblance of a smile.  “I ain’t done here.  Go back ta Master Splinter and tell him I said I was sorry I couldn’t be a good son, but I figured getting rid of Shredder’s legacy evened things out.”

            “No,” Don said sharply, taking another step towards Raph but stopping when his brother moved closer to the building’s edge.  “You don’t have to do this.  Nothing Karai or Shredder ever did is worth losing your life over.  If you die they’ll have succeeded in destroying our family.  Don’t you see that?”

            “Ya’ just don’t get it, Donny boy,” Raph said.  “It ain’t about me, or Hun, or Karai.  It’s about the whole stinking bunch of vermin that crawl all over the street hurting people who ain’t ever done anything but go about their business.  The bad ones reproduce like cockroaches bro’ and just like cockroaches, ya’ gotta kill ‘em.”

            “Murder isn’t the right way to make the city safe,” Don argued.  “Violence of that kind begets more violence.  Petty criminals who might not normally fight an arrest will start killing to avoid it if they think being caught means forfeiting their life.  Laws exist to create a peaceful society and maintaining that society means upholding the rule of law, no matter the outcome.”

            “Fuck laws!”  Raph shouted.  “Laws don’t mean shit if the criminals ain’t afraid of them.”

            “But they are,” Don argued.  “The vast majority of them are.  Please Raph, you have to stop.  We can’t lose you; I can’t lose you.”

            “It’s too late, Donny,” Raph said in a low voice.  “I ain’t worth saving.  Down there hanging onto a metal rail is my destiny.  The only thing I got ta offer this world is the strength ta rid it of the biggest evil I can find.  I’m gonna do just that.”

            “Wait, wait!” Don yelled as Raph suddenly leaped from the roof top.

            Rushing to the edge, Don looked down just as Raph landed heavily on the platform above where Karai was hanging on for dear life.

            Karai’s eyes widened as Raph lifted his sai, his intent obvious.

            “Please don’t do this, Raph!  Please!” Don pleaded, knowing he wouldn’t be fast enough to leap over and physically stop his brother.

            It was then that Karai let go of the railing.

TBC……………..


	13. Part 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,600  
> Rated: R adult concepts and situations, violence  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?

            Raph turned a deaf ear to Don’s pleading as he watched Karai fall.

            Her choice of a possible death from this height as opposed to a sure one at his hands didn’t faze him one bit.  Perhaps she was hoping to maintain her honor by committing a form of seppuku rather than to die beneath the weapons of her enemy.

            As long as she wound up dead Raph didn’t give a shit how it happened.  But they were only five stories high and Raph didn’t believe in leaving things to luck.  He could survive a fall from this height and with her training, it was possible that Karai could too.

            The alley below was strewn with junk from the construction site and from scavengers who had looted the neighborhood’s abandoned buildings.  Before Karai had even landed, Raph was moving, swinging along the railing from floor to floor until his feet touched concrete.

            He heard the groan of the metal fire escape as it bore the weight of another body and without looking up knew that Donatello was following him.  Raph didn’t want to hurt his brother, but he wasn’t going to let Don stop him.

            Don stood in shocked surprise for a full second after Karai started to fall.  Then he saw Raph start down after her and snapped out of his daze.  Jumping from the roof to the fire escape, Don chased after Raph, noting the bloody handprints that his brother left on everything he touched.

            Something moved amongst the debris, displacing a pile of rubble and concrete scraps.  Don heard the moan of pain at the same time Raph did and swung down to the ground just as Raph began flinging junk out of his way.

            Going as close to his berserk brother as he dared, Don started to pull away the heavier debris from the area, trying to clear some space around where he guessed Karai had landed.

            Raph found her first, his triumphant grunt drawing Don’s attention.  Scrambling over to them, Don was forced to stop several feet away when Raph kicked an empty paint can at his head.

            “Don’t ya’ come any closer, Don,” Raph rasped in a voice that sounded too hoarse.  “I don’t wanna fight ya’ but I will.”

            “You’ve made your point with her,” Don said urgently.  “Stop now.  Can’t you see she’s really hurt?”

            Karai had landed badly, rather than feet first she’d come down flat on her back.  A jagged length of pipe was protruding out of her chest just below her collar bone.  The pipe, embedded in a large chunk of concrete, was immovable.

            “Finish me,” Karai suddenly shrieked; her voice raspy.  Coughing, she choked out, “Do it you coward.”

            Growling, Raph snatched his sais from his belt and dropped to one knee next to her.

            “No!” Don shouted, moving nearer.  “Forget her Raph and listen to me.  She’s helpless, if you kill her like this you’ll be a murderer.”

            “It ain’t murder; it’s justice,” Raph spat.  “Do ya’ think this bitch has ever shown anyone mercy?  Do ya’ think any of her kind would hesitate ta kill either of us if we were in this position?  I should have been doing this all along instead of just knocking them on their asses and letting the cops dust ‘em off and send them home.”

            “What happens when you make a mistake?” Don asked.  “When you’ve judged someone wrongly based on not having all of the facts?  That’s why people can’t be vigilantes.”

            “She needs killing Donny,” Raph said, his sai inches from her throat.

            “I’m sure she probably does,” Don said carefully, “but not by you, not like this.”

            “Your family is weak,” Karai hissed.  “Your leader had a chance to finish me and he didn’t.  Why don’t you run away like he did?”

            “Shut up!”  Raph pressed the tip of his sai to her neck.  “Shut the fuck up!  Ya’ should’ve thanked Leo a thousand times over for not carving ya’ a new one.  Maybe he bought that whole honor act of yours, but I don’t.  You’re just a daddy’s girl ta me and ya’ deserve ta be put down just like he was.”

            “Raph!” Don yelled, trying to get his brother’s attention.  He could see blood oozing from the side of Karai’s mouth but it was nothing compared to the glistening streaks of blood that dripped down Raph’s side.  “I’ve never asked anything of you but I’m asking now.  Please don’t turn into this.  I need you.  To me you are worth saving.  You’ve lost blood; too much maybe.  You have to let me take you home.”

            His brother didn’t look up as Don spoke, but he did hesitate.  After a second Don could see Raph’s hand begin to tremble and then Raph was cursing, long strings of imprecations too low for Don to hear but their meaning obvious.

            Then Don saw Karai’s entire body shake and a second later her derisive laughter reached him.

            “Lowly animal,” Karai snarled.

            “Stop it, Karai!” Don screamed at her.

            Raph’s upper lipped curled back as he lifted his sai, fist curling tighter around the handle.  “Go home if ya’ don’t wanna see this, Don.”

            “She’s just stalling for time.  Her soldiers are coming.  Leave her there and come with me now,” Don pleaded.

            “Her time’s up,” Raph said.  “I’ll deal with the rest after.”

            Frantic, Don shouted, “Don’t you dare, Raph!”

            “Fuck off, Donny,” Raph barked through clenched teeth.

            Don snapped; his fear and frustration giving way to anger.  “Fine!  You want to give up on your life, then so will I!  I quit too, Raph!”

            Tossing his bo staff on the ground, Don turned and clambered over the debris, heading towards the mouth of the alley.  He could see the Foot ninjas running towards the fence that separated the street from the construction yard, their eyes still pointed upwards as they searched for their mistress.

            Lifting his arms in the air, Don yelled, “Hey Foot, here I am!”

            Almost as one the group spun towards him and a sense of impending doom washed over Don.  Somehow his panic had led him to this foolish move and he had no idea if he had actually accomplished anything other than to get himself killed.

            The Elite guards reached him first, leaping the fence in a single bound.  Don began backing away as the first one came at him, sword sweeping through the air with an audible swish.

            Before it could slice him open, the Elite’s sword clanged against the metal of Raph’s sai.  Their positions locked for a frozen second in time as the pair glared at each other, and then Raph twisted the trapped weapon aside and kicked the ninja away from him.

            He spun as another of the Elite’s darted past him, heading straight for Donatello.  Leaping on the man’s shoulders, Raph slammed the hilt of his sai into the back of the guard’s head and then rode his unconscious body to the ground.

            Jerking his head up, Raph’s eyes met Don’s and he bounded off the Elite, Don’s bo staff in one hand.  Don turned to the side, refusing to look at his brother as he watched the two remaining Elites prepare to charge them.

            “You dumb son of a bitch!” Raph bellowed in his ear, grabbing Don’s shoulder in a painfully tight grip.  “What do ya’ think you’re doing?  Take your fucking weapon and defend yourself!”

            He didn’t give Don a choice, shoving the bo into his brother’s hand before spinning to face the Elite guards.  The jangle of the construction yard fence reminded Don that other Foot soldiers had reached them and taking a deep breath, Don gripped his weapon and moved up to join Raph.

            Raph swayed on his feet, the loss of blood weakening him to the point that Don wondered if he could lift his arms to defend himself.  Mentally cursing his emotional outburst, Don stepped in front of his brother as one of the Elite stabbed at him with a spear.

            Blocking the spear’s thrust; Don rotated his bo and jabbed at the Elite’s chin.  The guard jerked back from him and swept down at Don’s feet with his weapon, but the turtle anticipated the movement and leaped over the spear, spinning his bo around and across before connecting solidly with the man’s ribcage.

            From the corner of his eye, Don saw several Foot soldiers rush towards Raph.  Heart leaping into his throat, Don vaulted for his brother, hoping to reach him in time.

            A sudden loud air-sucking _whomp_ shook the ground and stopped everyone mid-fight as they jerked around towards the source of the blast.  Behind them in the construction yard a huge flame billowed up from the ground, a rolling mushroom of smoke filling the sky overhead.

            The fire was large enough so that Don could actually feel the heat from it on his skin.  A moment later the initial surprise from the explosion faded; the realization that the fire was behind them turned the Foot soldiers back to the fight.  But then once more everyone paused as the sound of approaching sirens reached them.

            Thinking fast, Don knew their only chance for survival was to trick the Foot into leaving.

            “Karai got away from us!” Don shouted when he saw the Foot hesitate.  “If you stay here you’ll be seen and she won’t like that!”

            Don held his bo staff defensively and saw Raph spin his sais, letting the Foot know there was still plenty of fight left in him.  Their adversaries exchanged glances before a signal from one of the Elite guard sent the Foot ninjas scurrying away.  The other Elite scooped up his fallen comrade and in a burst of smoke, all three disappeared.

            “Mikey, that had to be Mikey,” Don mused, staring at the fire.  “Karai could pay off the police to look the other way, but no doubt she forgot about the fire department.”

            The sound of feet slapping pavement turned Don around and he saw Raph diving back into the alley where they’d left Karai.  Heart thumping, Don gave chase.

            He saw Raph kneel next to Karai again and noticed that she wasn’t moving.  When Don got closer, he realized she was merely unconscious.

            Raph was staring at Karai, his hatred of her still etched across his face.  One sai was in his belt, but he was holding the other just above her chest.

            “Raph . . . .” Don began, unsure of what he could do now to stop his brother.

            “Chill Donny,” Raph said in a low voice.  Looking up and meeting Don’s eyes, his hatred shifted to pain.  “Would ya’ really have just given up and let them kill ya’?”

            “Isn’t that what you’ve been trying to do?” Don countered softly.  In the same gentle tone he added, “Raph the little girl, the one you rescued from the Dragons, she’s okay.  She told the police that you saved her.”

            Tears welled up in Raph’s eyes and he blinked them away.  Lowering his head, Raph reached out and pinched a section of fabric from Karai’s sleeve between two fingers, lifting it away from her arm.  He dug the blunt tip of his weapon into the cloth, puncturing a hole in it, and then stuck his fingers inside to rip the sleeve off her arm.

            “Give me a hand,” Raph said as he repeated the process with her other sleeve.

            Don slid his bo into place on his back and stepped over, squatting opposite Raph.  Together they lifted Karai off of the pipe and then Raph quickly plugged the hole on either side of her wound, packing it tightly to slow the loss of blood.

            “There’s a twenty-four hour emergency clinic a block and a half from here,” Don said, making as if the carry Karai.

            Raph pushed him back gently, shaking his head.  “I got this,” he said.

            Don didn’t bother to argue with him, watching as Raph picked up the unconscious woman.  He staggered slightly as he made his way out of the alley with Don close behind.

            They made it unseen to within sight of the clinic’s doors.  Don ducked back into the mouth of an alley as Raph hugged the walls of the building, remaining in shadow until he could set her down where he knew someone would see her.

            Taking a rock from where he’d stashed it in his belt, Raph threw it at one of the glass doors, breaking it with a loud crash.  As soon as he released the rock, he jogged back to where Don was waiting.

            The pair watched as several clinic employees dashed outside and then saw the bleeding woman lying nearby.  Once the turtles knew she’d been found, they crept back into the alley towards the manhole that Don had already opened.

            That was when Raph’s stubborn willpower to stay upright left him and he sagged heavily against Donatello.  Catching him, Don half-carried, half-dragged his heavier brother to the manhole.  Easing Raph’s feet onto the ladder, Don lay face down on the pavement so he could hold onto Raph’s arms as his brother climbed down.

            Raph sank to the ground as soon as he was in the tunnel and Don dropped down next to him.  A quick exam showed him a wound that was still bleeding and by the sound of his brother’s raspy breathing, he’d already lost a significant amount of blood.

            Swiftly Don used both his belt and Raph’s to tie off as much of the ragged flesh as he possibly could.  Without his bag, it was the best Don could manage.  He only hoped he could get Raph back to the lair fast enough to operate and save him.

            Yanking his shell cell from his belt, Don placed a call to Mikey, hoping that his family had gotten away from the Foot.  A wave of relief swept over him when Mikey answered immediately.

            _“Did you catch Raph?”_ Mikey asked anxiously.

            “He’s here with me,” Don said.  “He’s hurt and losing blood.  I don’t know how much I have in stock so you guys need to get back to the lair fast.  He needs a transfusion.  Please tell me you lost the Foot.”

            _“We got away from them and we’re all okay.  Blowing up the front loader and Hun’s car was a big incentive for them to leave,”_ Mikey said.

            “I knew that was you,” Don said.  “Any chance you can grab my duffel?”

            _“I’ve already got it,”_ Mikey answered with a touch of humor.  _“How do you think I managed the explosion?”_

            Signing off, Don tucked the shell cell away and looked to see Raph watching him, eyes half open and mouth twisted with pain.

            “I fucked up,” Raph whispered, unable to manage more than that.

            Don cupped his brother’s cheek, fighting the constriction in his throat.  After a moment, he said, “Save your strength, I’m taking you home.”

            Raph nodded and then his eyes slid shut.  Ignoring the panic that threatened to swallow him whole, Don pulled Raph into a sitting position and then tugged his brother onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry.

            Running through the tunnels towards his home, Don tried to keep his mind focused on the steps he would need to take once they arrived there.  Every time his thoughts tried to tell him he might not make it in time, Don slapped them back down.

            Having a rebellious brother was one thing but Don was not going to accept that kind of fatalism from his own brain.

TBC……………..


	14. Part 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 2,899  
> Rated: R TCest, adult concepts and situations  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?  
> Pairing: Michelangelo/Donatello

            Leo was waiting for them just outside the lair.  Plunging through the tunnel with Raph’s unconscious body across his shoulders, Don felt a touch of relief at seeing Leo’s capable face.

            “Father and Mikey are readying the infirmary,” Leo said, closing the tunnel entry behind them.  He didn’t offer to relieve Don of his burden; the trade-off would have eaten precious seconds.

            Don rushed into their medical room and immediately saw that his family had set up everything he would need near the exam table.  With his brother’s help, he carefully lowered Raph onto the table, noting as he did so that the belts he’d used to try and secure Raph’s injuries were soaked with blood.

            “Mikey, prep his arm,” Don said without looking up as he ran to the sink to wash his hands.

            “Have you determined the extent of his injuries?” Master Splinter asked, holding a clean towel out to his son.

            “I don’t think any major arteries were cut,” Don said, tossing the towel into a hamper before going back to the table.  “If they had been, Raph wouldn’t be with us anymore.  He’s bleeding but not gushing, which is a good thing.  Unfortunately it isn’t stopping on its own, so the damage is bad enough to require internal and external stitches.”

            Leo filled a syringe with a dose of morphine and expertly administered the shot to Raph so that he wouldn’t move while Don worked.  When he finished, Leo glanced at Don and asked, “That blood, Don are you . . . ?”

            Don’s eyes flicked over to the shoulder Leo was indicating.  “No, that’s Raph’s,” he said with a grimace.  He didn’t look but was sure there was blood all over his carapace as well.

            “Do we have enough stored blood my son?” Master Splinter asked, his finger on the pulse in Raph’s neck.

            “I doubt it,” Don answered as he slowly removed the layers of cloth from Raph’s injuries.

            Mikey already had a line run to Raph’s arm, the first bag of Raph’s own blood dripping into their brother.

            “We’ll use what we have and then Leo and I will do a direct transfusion if we need to,” Mikey said.  “It’ll be okay, Donny.”

            Nodding, Don waited for Leo to wash up and then handed a set of clamps to the eldest brother.  As Leo clamped off a couple of veins, Don began to suture.

            “His pulse is dropping, Donatello,” Master Splinter said warningly.

            “Mikey . . . .” Don said without looking up.

            His youngest brother was already preparing another syringe with a cardiac stimulant.  “I’m on it,” he said.

            “Master Splinter will tell you when to give the injection,” Don said, his fingers dancing inside of Raph’s body.

            Leo watched Don operate, his younger brother’s demeanor detached and professional.  Don issued instructions in a clipped tone, wasting no words, and his family moved with the same precision under his command as they did when it was Leo giving the orders.

            This was Donatello’s domain and here he was the general.  His knowledge, other than some holistic healing he’d learned from Master Splinter, was all self-taught.  Throughout the years Don had drilled his family on medical procedures so that they could assist him when necessary.

            His expectations in this area were as high as Master Splinter’s were in the dojo.  Everything they did was about life and death; the ninjitsu training was for protecting themselves from harm, the medical training was to save them when they didn’t move fast enough.

            Leo could sense his father’s concern and he could see Mikey’s fear.  He was himself worried as he watched Don’s blood slicked fingers work to put Raphael back together again.  Only Don seemed unaffected by the situation and Leo envied him his ability to compartmentalize his emotions.

            Time slid by and Don finally managed to contain the bleeding and stitch Raph’s body back together.  They almost lost Raph once during the procedure but Don’s quick thinking and natural skill got them past that hurdle.  Raph’s vital signs had eventually stabilized.

            They were still using bagged blood, but as soon as Don was at a point where he didn’t need the extra hands, Mikey pulled Leo aside and began drawing his blood to replenish their supply.  While Leo sat quietly waiting for the bag to fill, Mikey helped Don do the post-surgery cleanup.

            Once Master Splinter was assured that Raph was out of danger for the moment, he left the infirmary in order to prepare a meal for his sons.  No one was in the mood for anything heavy; they were all too tired from the fight and the anxiety over nearly losing Raph.  The large bowls containing ramen noodles that Master Splinter brought to them was the perfect repast.

            After Leo had given blood and finished his ramen, Master Splinter insisted he lie down and rest.  Leo wanted to argue the point, but his father overrode him by pointing out that someone had to be with Raph at all times and they needed to take turns.  Since Leo had just given blood it was logical that he be the first to nap.

            As Don prepped Mikey for his turn in the blood donor chair, Leo had a last look at Raph, squeezing his brother’s hand as he leaned over to whisper something to him.

            When Leo left to go lie down on the couch so that he wouldn’t be far away, Master Splinter gathered the empty bowls and took them to the kitchen, remaining there in order to wash up.

            Mikey didn’t say anything for a while as he leaned back comfortably in the chair, his arm propped up on a small table.  Blood flowed from him into a fresh collection bag and with nothing else to do, Mikey followed Don around the room with his eyes.

            It was obvious after a few minutes that Don was trying to use up an excess of nervous energy.  Mikey wasn’t a rocket scientist but he knew his family.

            “Dude, you’re making me more tired than I already am,” Mikey said softly.

            Don gave a start as though he’d been deep in thought and had forgotten that someone else was in the room.

            “Sorry,” Don said, glancing at Mikey.  “The part where all I can do is wait to see if I put you guys back together correctly is always the worst for me.”

            “ _All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Raphie together again_ ,” Mikey misquoted in a sing song voice.  “The only thing that king needed was a Donatello.  I’m not going to tell you not to sweat it, ‘cause I know you will anyway, but you did everything that was possible.  Considering what is possible for you, I’d say Raph’s chances are damn good.”

            Don offered him a small smile in gratitude for his words of encouragement, and Mikey immediately saw the exhaustion Don had been trying to hide.  It was more than simply physical fatigue; Mikey saw that Don was close to a mental collapse as well.

            Clearing his throat, Mikey said, “Hey Don, could you bring me some water?”

            “Of course,” Don answered, fetching a bottle from the small infirmary refrigerator and bringing it to Mikey.  He twisted the cap off before handing it to his brother.

            “Thanks.  Hey, sit down while you’re here and keep me company,” Mikey urged, taking a swig from the bottle.

            Don hesitated, glancing over at Raph.  Mikey set the bottle on the table and reached out to touch the back of Don’s hand.

            “Sit down before you fall down bro’,” Mikey said gently.

            With a sigh of resignation, Don pulled a stool over next to Mikey’s chair and slowly lowered himself onto it.

            “How are you doing?” Don asked, glancing at Mikey’s arm.

            “As many times as I’ve sat in this chair giving blood you have to ask?” Mikey responded with a grin.

            “You know I meant more than just that,” Don said.  “Do your eyes still sting?”

            Mikey shook his head.  “Nah.  Between the fight and trying to patch Raph together I forgot all about ‘em.  Can I take these goggles off now?”

            “Hold on,” Don said, rolling his stool over to one of his cabinets.  He came back with a small bottle in one hand and carefully removed the goggles from Mikey’s face.  “Lean your head back and open your eyes wide so I can put some drops in them.”

            Mikey blinked rapidly as the cool drops hit his eyes and then closed both of them, making a face as he did so.

            “How does that feel?” Don asked.

            “Burns a little,” Mikey admitted.  Very slowly he lifted one eyelid and then the other.  “That’s better.”

            “We’ll put these drops in every six hours and you should be good as new in a day or so,” Don told him.  “No leaving the lair without the goggles though.  In fact, none of us should leave the lair until things settle down topside.”

            Mikey watched Don’s face as his brother leaned across him and placed the eye drops on the table next to the water bottle.  Sitting back up, Don automatically turned his head to check on Raph.

            In almost a whisper, Mikey asked, “What did you have to do to get Raph to come back?”

            Don visibly stiffened.  “What makes you think I didn’t find him like that and just carry him home?”

            He wasn’t looking at Mikey and the younger turtle knew he was purposely avoiding doing so.  “I saw him go after Karai too, Donny.  Hurt or not, he was determined to finish things.  It was in his eyes.  Did he kill her?”

            “No!” Don answered sharply, finally turning his head.  “She fell from a building trying to get away from him, but she’s not dead.”

            Mikey studied him for a moment, taking in Don’s parted lips as his breath rushed over them, his chest heaving from ill-concealed anxiety.  Don’s hands were clenched, his fists resting on his thighs, and his feet planted firmly on the floor as if ready to flee at the utterance of one wrong word.

            Don’s entire body language spoke of an untold story.  Mikey knew that Don was perfectly capable of keeping secrets and that the genius was also quite good at hiding the fact he was keeping them.  It was easy to see that Don needed to talk about what had happened; he just didn’t _want_ to.

            Very slowly Mikey worked through what Don had already said and pieced together an inference.  “Raph hurt her during their fight in the yard,” Mikey said.  “Karai didn’t want _him_ to deliver the final blow so she tried to get away, but she was messed up enough not to be able to make the roof top jumps.  She either fell by accident or she did it on purpose so that Raph couldn’t brag that he’d killed her.”

            Don flicked his tongue over his lower lip and then closed his mouth, nodding once to acknowledge that Mikey had guessed correctly.  “He was standing over her on a fire escape and she let go,” Don finally admitted.

            “The fall didn’t kill her,” Mikey said, not a question.

            “No,” Don replied, answering anyway.

            “He would have gone down to get her,” Mikey said, his voice still soft.  “The fact that you know she’s not dead tells me that you saw her after she fell.  How did you stop him Donny?”

            “I c . . . couldn’t,” Don stuttered.  “Raph wouldn’t listen to me; no matter what I said.  He thought he was already dead and he was determined that his last act was going to be in protecting us by destroying Karai.”

            After Don finished speaking Mikey let the silence drag on, watching his brother intently.  He could see a replay of the emotions of that moment on Don’s face, the panic and frustration, the utter fear and sheer anger.

            “But he didn’t do it,” Mikey said in an almost hypnotic tone.  “What did you do to snap him out of it?”

            Don pressed his lips together and then opened them to say, “I called to the Foot and told them to come and get me.”

            Mikey’s mouth dropped open and it took him a couple of seconds to shut it.  When he did, Mikey couldn’t help but to start chuckling.  “Wow, I guess none of us are immune to an attack of the crazies,” he managed to say.

            “It isn’t funny, Mikey,” Don said, trying to maintain a serious expression.

            That only made Mikey laugh harder and then Don found himself struggling to keep a straight face.  He lost the battle almost immediately and was soon laughing right alongside his brother.

            The laughter smoothed some of the lines from Don’s face and Mikey breathed a silent sigh of relief.  Having a genius for a brother was awesome; having a brother who’s a genius suffer from a mental breakdown not so much.

            “You know that’s probably the only thing that would have worked, right Donny?” Mikey finally asked.  “As dangerous as it was, nothing else would have made Raph understand how idiotic it is to commit suicide.”

            Don sobered a bit, but the hint of a smile still curled the corners of his mouth.  “Don’t think I didn’t notice you just called me a crazy idiot,” he said.  “Trust me when I say every other conceivable idea passed through my head before I tried that one.  My anger disappeared fast when I saw those Foot bearing down on me.”

            “I wouldn’t have thought of doing that at all,” Mikey admitted, “and neither would Leo.  He would have tried attacking Raph and I guess that’s what I would have done too.  If you had done that, he would have had time to kill her, wouldn’t he?”

            Nodding, Don said, “He was holding his sai just above her throat.  Greased lightning wouldn’t have been fast enough to stop him.”

            He got up from the stool to go around Mikey and begin disconnecting the tubing from his brother’s arm.  Mikey watched him work, musing to himself at how self-sacrificing Don was not just in thought but in action as well.

            “With either Leo or I there, Raph would have murdered Karai and then killed himself on our weapons or his own,” Mikey said.  “He’s alive because you’ve always understood the best way to deal with him when he’s raging.”

            Don glanced up, eyes locking with Mikey’s.  “Just like you always know how to get me to talk things through, how Raph can snap Leo out of a funk, how Leo is the one who can keep you motivated.”

            “How we’ll always be together because we understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” Mikey said.  “Raph knew them and tried to use them against us.  Are you gonna forgive him?”

            Brow furrowing, Don said, “We all have to if any of us want to heal.  Don’t you agree?”

            “Yeah, I do,” Mikey replied.  “The question is, will he forgive himself?  Left to his own, Raph isn’t going to work through this.  As soon as he’s well enough to get up, he’s liable to storm out of here and go right back to trying to kill Karai.”

            “No,” Don said, “he won’t.”

            Mikey stared at him for a moment and then reached out to take a hold of Don’s arm.  There was a sadness in Don’s expression that moved the younger brother and he pulled Don into an embrace.  Don sank to his knees next to Mikey’s legs and pressed his face against the younger turtle’s plastron.

            “How do you know?” Mikey asked quietly.

            Don’s voice was muffled but clear enough.  “You should have seen his face when we tricked the Foot into leaving.  He still hates Karai, but when he went back for her it was to save her life, not take it.  Despite the fact he could barely walk, he carried her almost two blocks to the emergency clinic.”

            “He was using his hatred to deal with his, what did you call it?  Disenfranchised grief,” Mikey said.  “Trying to go out there and destroy everything that’s evil sounds like a great idea in theory, but it steals too much from you.  Your move made him realize that, but it doesn’t mean he suddenly knows what to do with his feelings.”

            “Raph will continue to pull away from us,” Don said.  “Physically he’ll be here, but his internal guilt and shame will make him feel stigmatized.  He’ll be hostile, withdrawn, and depressed.  He won’t be Raph anymore.”

            Mikey lifted a hand to Don’s chin and tilted his brother’s head back so he could look into Don’s deep brown eyes.  Stroking his thumb over Don’s cheek, Mikey said, “So validate him.”

            “What?” Don asked, puzzled.

            “You said that this kind of grief makes someone feel like they’re powerless and that Raph was acting out because he’s trying to regain control.  Since you’re the one he’ll most likely talk to, you have to get him to open up and then give him the support he needs so he’ll stop internalizing everything.”

            “What if I don’t know what to say?” Don asked querulously.  “What if I can’t get through to him?”

            “You’ll figure it out,” Mikey said, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to Don’s mouth.  “You always do.”

TBC……………….


	15. Part 14 Final

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Word Count: 4,604  
> Rated: R TCest, adult concepts and situations  
> Summary: How deep does vigilante justice run through Raphael's veins? Deep enough to separate him from his family?  
> Pairing: mild Don/Raph

            Raph was in and out of consciousness for three days following his surgery.  Because he was unable to eat or drink on his own, Don hooked up an IV bag to provide nutrients and to keep Raph hydrated.

            Don took few breaks during that time, eating and sleeping in the infirmary.  His family took turns watching over Raph while Don slept or had a shower, but the genius turtle monitored his brother personally for as much of that time as possible.

            Unable to get information regarding Karai’s status from any news or online source, Mikey had called April.  He quickly told her about their last fight with the Purple Dragons and the Foot, telling her that Raph had come home but was recovering from injuries he’d sustained during the fight.

            When Mikey told her that Karai had been seriously hurt as well, April expressed her surprise, stating that she’d heard nothing about the famous Oroku Saki’s daughter having been admitted to the hospital.  Mikey had explained that was the reason for his call; the Foot had no doubt paid to keep everyone’s mouths shut, but he and his brothers really needed to know if Karai had survived.

            Mikey had a feeling that it would be important to Raph’s mental healing for him to know that his actions in saving Karai had not been in vain.  That he did not share with April, along with the fact that it was Raph who had tried to kill Karai in the first place.

            April assured Mikey that between her and Casey, they would get the information the turtles required.  Mikey had reminded her to be careful and not to let the Foot learn what she was doing.

            Rather than calling, April had come by the next day with Casey in tow.  She’d sent him to the kitchen to begin putting away the groceries she’d brought with her and Mikey couldn’t help but notice she was a little peeved with the man.

            “What did Casey do now?” Mikey asked after thanking April for the food.

            “I shouldn’t be mad at him,” April said, acknowledging Mikey’s supposition.  “He found out about Karai when I couldn’t get any information.  It’s just the _way_ he found out that annoys me.”

            “Hey, when a gal flirts ta loosen up a guy’s tongue it’s okay,” Casey said, sticking his head out of the kitchen.  “Why is it when a guy does the same thing his girlfriend threatens ta yank his balls off?”

            “You are not finished unpacking the groceries, Casey Jones,” April said in a voice that could freeze water.

            “Yes your highness,” Casey said sarcastically before he ducked back into the kitchen.

            “Oh, sometimes I’d like to . . . .” April began with a tone of frustration.

            “So what did you find out about Karai?” Mikey interrupted, hoping to stave off a rant about Casey’s failings.

            April turned her attention back to Mikey.  “She was admitted to the hospital with a head injury and a penetrating wound in her upper chest.  About twenty minutes after they hauled her into the emergency room, a bunch of guys in suits descended on the hospital and completely gagged the staff.  Word came down from the highest hospital echelons that no one was to breathe a word about the patient unless they wanted to lose their jobs and go to jail.”

            Mikey let out a short whistle.  “I guess having anyone know that the leader of the Foot clan was incapacitated would start another turf war from here all the way to Japan.  Is she okay?”

            Nodding, April said, “They performed surgery immediately and she pulled through just fine.  According to Casey’s source, Karai was removed from the hospital just as soon as her vital signs stabilized.  She went by private helicopter.  We don’t know where she was taken, but I’d guess back to her own building.  The labs and scientists there can take care of her as well or better than the hospital could.”

            “And she wouldn’t have to worry about being assassinated by some rival gang,” Mikey added.  As much as he didn’t want to bring up Casey’s role in acquiring the information, Mikey’s curiosity got the better of him.  “Exactly how did Casey find all of that out if the hospital staff was supposed to keep their mouths closed?”

            April’s lips pressed together in a thin line before she finally opened them to say, “He borrowed a city power and light uniform from a friend of his and got past security by telling them there was a problem in the hospital’s electrical system.  None of the staff would say anything when he asked about Karai but being the subtle ape that he is, he came close to being tossed out on his ear.  He shut up about it quick but noticed one of the younger nurses kept looking at him so he flirted with her and asked her out to dinner.”

            “He took a nurse to dinner?” Mikey asked, surprised.

            “It was the only way I was gonna find out anything about Karai,” Casey said, walking towards them.  “After a couple of beers she loosened up enough ta gossip about it.  I didn’t do nothing except spring for pizza and beer, babe.  I keep telling ya’ that.”

            “And how exactly did her phone number end up on the back of your hand in _permanent_ marker?” April asked.

            Mikey had walked away from the pair at that point, having learned long ago to step away from their arguments.  He relayed the information about Karai to Master Splinter first, then to Leo and Don.

            Fearing reprisals from the Foot clan, Leo reminded April and Casey to be on guard, and to use the tunnel in April’s basement if they needed to make a quick escape.  Since Karai hadn’t gone after them before, Leo doubted she would this time, but he was playing it safe.

            He also made sure his brothers knew that no one would be leaving the lair anytime soon either.  That was okay by them; Mikey was happy to spend time reading comics and playing video games and no one was going to pull Don away from Raph anyway.

            Even though Don had announced that he was sure Raph was going to be fine, it was still a long three days for all of them.  It wasn’t just worrying about their hot headed brother’s physical well-being that had them on edge, it was wondering what he would be like when he finally woke up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Raph’s eyelids fluttered heavily, at first refusing his commands to open before finally crawling all the way up.  The first thing he saw was the ceiling in the infirmary, recognizing it because Mikey had long ago plastered a collage of nature prints overhead.

            When he tried rotating his head, the entire room started to spin and his eyes snapped shut.  It took a couple of seconds for things to settle again and then he once more opened his eyes.

            Gripping the sides of the cot, Raph tried to push himself into a sitting position and immediately felt the thick, tight bandages that were wrapped around his midsection.  Further movement sent a shooting pain into his side and he fell back, panting from just that small amount of exertion.

            As soon as Raph let out a groan that was part pain and part aggravation, Don suddenly appeared.

            “Be still,” Don urged, pushing gently on Raph’s shoulder.

            Raph lay back, his eyes flickering past Don before pointing upwards at the ceiling.  He was sure he was in for a speech about how foolhardy he’d been and knowing he deserved it didn’t mean that Raph was ready to see the look of disappointment on Don’s face.

            Don didn’t say anything as he placed an extra pillow under Raph’s shoulder, helping his brother sit up as he did so.  Once Raph was propped up, Don opened the bottle of water that was on the bedside table, putting a straw in the bottle before turning back towards his brother.

            “Here, try to sip this,” Don said, touching the straw to Raph’s lips.  “You’ve been on intravenous fluids but I’d imagine your mouth feels pretty dry.”

            Raph gratefully sipped the water, letting it coat his mouth before swallowing.  So Don wasn’t going to say anything just yet; he always played caretaker first before starting in with the tongue lashing.

            When Raph pushed the straw from his mouth, Don put the cup back on the table and asked, “From one to ten, what’s your pain level?”

            “’Bout a two I guess,” Raph croaked before clearing his throat.

            “Right.  That means it’s really around six,” Don said without the usual touch of humor he conveyed when pointing out Raph’s refusal to admit he was in pain.  “I’m going to guess that if I ask you if you want something for the pain you’ll say no.”

            “Don’t need anything,” Raph told him, confirming Don’s assumption.  “How long have I been out?”

            “Three days,” Don answered.  “You suffered from a loss of blood due to the wounds in your side.  I had to stitch you on the inside before I could pull the outer layer of skin back together.  The internal stitching is the kind that dissolves so I won’t have to reopen you to remove them.  It was a pretty bad mess but nothing major got nicked.  Don’t try to get up anytime soon, despite having a lot of our blood in your system, you still need to build up your own supply.”

            In the past Raph would have argued the point, but he didn’t feel like it at the moment.  He doubted that he’d be able to stand up straight anyway.

            “I’m good,” Raph said.

            Don stared at him for a second before nodding and walking away.  Raph blinked in surprise; this was his brother’s cue to lay into him but as he watched, Don sat down at his desk and started removing the screws from an old radio.

            Raph watched Don work, the minutes ticking by in utter silence.  The genius neither moved nor spoke, his entire focus on pulling the radio apart and carefully setting the pieces out on the desk in front of him.

            Turning his head so that he was staring up at a picture of a pasture full of wildflowers, Raph felt his heart twist inside his chest.  Of course Don didn’t want to talk to him anymore than he had to, not after being treated so cruelly by his own brother.  Raph had done it specifically because it was the ugliest thing he could think to do to Don, but now he couldn’t even fathom how he could have reached such a level of depravity.

            Practically raping Don, almost blinding Mikey, and then trying to force Leo to kill him were all things Raph had done and he couldn’t deny them.  Nor could he deny the hollow feeling in his heart at having thrown away the only happiness he’d ever known.  There was no way his family could ever look at him again and he didn’t blame them.

            “I ain’t too smart, am I?” Raph asked, hoping that Don would at least agree with him.

            Still Don didn’t answer, his mouth set in a firm line and his eyes directed towards the junk on his desk.

            Raph felt like he was dying a little inside, but he couldn’t take the silent treatment from Don.  This was the one brother who didn’t judge him, who accepted that Raph could sometimes let his feelings make him irrational.  He wanted Don to ask him to explain himself; he needed Don to question him because that was often the only way Raph could come to understand the things he’d done.

            Somehow Raph knew that if Donny wouldn’t talk to him then there was no way out of the dark well he felt like he was crawling around in.  Raph hadn’t much wanted to say anything when he woke up and probably would have fought any attempts to make him talk, but having Don sitting there acting as though he didn’t give a rat’s ass one way or the other went against Raph’s contrary nature.

            “Go ahead and tell me I’m an asshole,” Raph said in a slightly louder voice.

            Don didn’t even bother to act as though he’d heard Raph, screwdriver in hand and the tip of his tongue showing from between his lips.

            “I put my whole damn family in danger!” Raph practically shouted.

            Very slowly, Don set the screwdriver down and looked up, but his head didn’t turn in Raph’s direction.

            “Yes you did,” Don said in a low voice.  “You knew we’d never leave you out there to die and you used that against us.”

            “I had ta end it,” Raph said, his tone sounding desperate.

            “End what exactly?” Don asked.  “Your life?  Our existence?  What was suddenly so bad?”

            Raph bit his lip, feeling ridiculous again for having let something he couldn’t control get to him.  Even thinking about the incident that had happened several months ago left him wallowing in a pit of despair.

            Rather than press Raph for an answer as he might have done in the past, Don got up to look through some boxes filled with miscellaneous parts.  His complete lack of interest left Raph stunned.  It also struck a nerve.

            “The pain,” Raph blurted out.

            Don stopped what he was doing and glanced over at Raph.  “You’ll have to be more specific than that if you want me to understand anything.”

            Chin quivering, Raph muttered, “We get people killed.”

            “No we do not,” Don said adamantly.  “If I thought that way, I’d never go out on patrol.  Neither would Leo or Mikey.”

            “That lady and teenager from the bus would still be alive if we’d taken care of business the way we should have,” Raph insisted.

            Don inhaled slowly to maintain his detached exterior.  He’d gotten Raph to say something about what was at the core of his problems; now Don needed to guide him to finding the answers he needed.

            “Oh, yes.  The two guys who were robbing people on that bus,” Don said musingly.  “We stopped them from doing something once before, didn’t we?  What was it?”

            Raph frowned, wondering how his brother could forget something so horrific.  “They were knocking down old ladies and snatching their purses.  We caught ‘em but the cops let ‘em go the next day.”

            Lifting a box, Don carried it back over to his desk, dumping out half of it as he said, “Since you knew they were going to become murderers, why didn’t you just kill them after we caught them?”

            The question was so offhand and mild it took a second for it to click in Raph’s head.  With utter incredulity, he asked, “What did you say?”

            “Your magic eight ball,” Don answered.  “You saw the future, why did you let them live?”

            “Because they were just stealing purses!” Raph exclaimed, starting to become annoyed.

            “Yes,” Don said, turning his head to look at Raph once more.  “They were purse snatchers.  Stupid, low life thugs.  Exactly like the ones we run across every other night; the ones who learn their lessons after getting spanked by us and then they stop being menaces to society.”

            He went back to working on the radio, ignoring the look of comprehension that was starting to show on Raph’s face.

            “Karai’s a killer though,” Raph murmured, almost as if trying to justify his actions.

            “Not from any evidence I’ve ever seen,” Don said.  “Shredder was and we took care of him.  The only killing that Karai has ever attempted was of us and she hasn’t been overly successful.  She doesn’t even sanction it from her ninjas; I think she gets a bigger kick out of manipulating people to do her bidding.”

            Raph grew silent, seeming to mull that over and Don pretended he didn’t care if his brother believed him or not.

            “Is she dead?” Raph asked in a small voice.

            Don waited a minute before answering.  “No,” he said, careful to keep his tone even.  “You handed her ass to her but gave her back her life.”

            “Yeah, I’m a fucking hero,” Raph said acerbically.  “Why do I feel like it’s just more of the same?”

            “I don’t know,” Don said.  “You’re the only one that can answer that question.  The people on that bus died needlessly but through no fault of ours.  A lot of people in the world die needlessly every day and there is nothing we can do about it.  I mourn those losses, Raph, I really do.  Even if I don’t know them, I feel their passing deeply because I take the loss of life very seriously.”

            “Don’t it make ya’ feel . . . helpless?” Raph asked slowly.

            Don studied him for a moment and then said, “Yes, sometimes.  It makes me feel pretty small in the scheme of things.  When that happens, I try to remember all of the good things I’ve done and I realize those are the things I have to focus on doing more of.  The good that we accomplish more than balances out the evil that’s out there.”

            “Is that your way of saying that two wrongs don’t make a right?” Raph asked with a touch of his old humor.

            “Something like that,” Don said in an even tone, unwilling to let Raph bury his feelings in some proverb that he probably hadn’t really thought about.  “I wasn’t thinking anything like that when I helped April shut down Stockman’s mouser operation.  All I was trying to do was save April.”

            With that he separated a few parts into a small pile and swept the rest back into the box, carrying it over to where he’d gotten it.  Raph watched him, working to calm the quivering in his gut.  He would give anything to feel the warmth of Don’s smile, but his brother continued to be aloof.

            “I was looking for an easy way out,” Raph said simply.  “It . . . hurts ta think about those two people.  It hurts ta think about how much their families miss ‘em.  It . . . hurts that all I’m good for is saving purses.”

            Don spun to stare at him, his dark eyes piercing into Raph.  “Really?  Is that how you feel about saving April’s life?  How about how we pulled Angel away from the Dragons?  How do you think she feels about us after we saved her brother from certain death?  What about how we brought some sanity into Casey’s life?  Are you forgetting Tyler and his mom?  The men at the junkyard who were turned into slave laborers by the Garbageman?  I guess those saves don’t count for anything.”

            “Of course they do!” Raph snapped.  “Why can’t ya’ just let me feel bad about the ones I couldn’t save?”

            There was silence after the words left Raph’s mouth and then Don’s expression softened.  “No one has ever said you can’t feel bad about those two people on the bus, Raphael,” he said quietly.  “Mourning their passing is completely acceptable, whether you knew them personally or not.  You are totally justified in feeling like you could have saved them; that is a perfectly normal reaction and nothing to be ashamed of.”

            “Ya’ told me I had ta let it go or it would eat at me,” Raph said.

            “I was wrong,” Don told him.  “You needed to talk about it and I blew you off.  I should have known this was different for you because I was feeling bad about it myself.  It wasn’t just a set of numbers to mark in the loss column; it was two real people who didn’t deserve to die.”

            “I had ta do something,” Raph said, sounding more forlorn than Don had ever heard.

            “I know,” Don said.  “Your natural proclivity is to lash out and that’s what you did.  We should have understood; I should have understood.  Impotent rage I think it’s called.  Being powerless to do anything.  That isn’t a feeling that anyone likes to have, especially you.  It was the thing that drove you to the aggressive approach towards criminals.”

            “Aggressive meaning I wanted ta just kill all of them,” Raph said.  “I thought it’d make me feel like I was in control, but I couldn’t do it.”

            “So you decided to force us to see things from your point of view,” Don said.  “You tried to transfer those feelings of impotence to us so that we’d take up your cause.”

            “I already said I ain’t too smart,” Raph whispered.

            “It wasn’t the brightest thing you’ve ever done,” Don agreed.  “We figured it out though.  I wish we could have found a way to get through to you that didn’t involve your nearly bleeding to death.”

            Raph went quiet again and Don did too, knowing that his brother needed a minute to adjust to the admissions he’d made to Don and himself as well.  Don shuffled through his collection of junk looking for parts he could use so that Raph wouldn’t feel like Don’s eyes were boring into him.

            “Do ya’ think Mikey and Leo will forgive me?” Raph asked.

            “After a while,” Don said truthfully.  He crossed over to his desk, his back to Raph, and added, “They aren’t going to spread their legs for you anytime soon though.”

            In a softer voice, Raph asked, “Are ya’ gonna forgive me?”

            Raph watched Don’s shell for a few minutes, but the genius didn’t answer.  Raph finally turned his head away and stared up at the ceiling, his eyes misting over with unwanted tears.

            Suddenly a shadow fell across his face followed closely by Don’s lips pressing against his.  The kiss was slow and deep, not passionate, but filled with love and the promise that it wasn’t the last.

            When Don lifted his head to break the kiss, he said, “You owe me, you know that, right?”

            “What do ya’ want, Donny?  Anything, it’s yours, just name it,” Raph replied in a voice hoarse with emotion.

            The corners of Don’s lips twitched upwards.  “I want you to promise never to do anything like that again.”

            “I can’t promise I won’t do something stupid,” Raph said, “but I will promise not ta try and kill myself again.”

            “That’s good to hear,” Don said.  “I’d rather not feel like I have to quit right alongside you.”

            “I guess ya’ knew what ya’ were doing,” Raph said, “’cause ya’ sure scared the shit out of me.  I shouldn’t have said ya’ was dumb.”

            Don smiled.  “Oh, the son a bitch part was okay though?”

            Raph chuckled softly.  “That one I’m sticking to.”

            Don lowered his head and pressed his forehead against Raph’s.  “You know that we all have things that give us nightmares, don’t you?”

            “Yeah, I do,” Raph answered in a near whisper.

            “We’re never going to make fun of the things that really bother you,” Don told him.  “There is no way we wouldn’t understand because we’re all experiencing the same things.  No matter how much good we do, there are going to be losses and they are going to make us sad or angry.  It’s okay to mourn those losses, just please give us the chance to go through them with you.”

            “I feel like a fucking sap,” Raph said.

            Don touched his cheek and then stepped away, going to his desk and opening a drawer.  Taking a folder out of it, he came back over to Raph’s side.

            “Let me show you something,” Don said.

            Setting the folder on Raph’s stomach, Don pulled out a picture of a rundown tenement, the roof sagging, glass missing out of windows, and an air of general disrepair about the entire place.

            “Do you remember Alex Cardona?” Don asked.

            Puzzled, Raph said, “Yeah, he was working off a gambling debt by laundering money through his rental properties and stealing from his tenants.”

            “After our ‘intervention’ he straightened himself out.  This was one of his buildings,” Don said before taking another picture out of the folder.  It showed the same piece of property, but it had been completely renovated and upgraded.  “This is how the building looks now.  He doesn’t gamble anymore and he’s been buying other buildings and fixing them up too.”

            The next picture he took from the folder was of a teenage boy wearing Purple Dragon colors and obviously sporting an attitude.  “Carey ‘Crip’ Sommerville,” Don said.  “We scared him into leaving the Dragons.”  Behind that picture was another of the same boy, this time surrounded by preteens on a basketball court.  “He’s in college now on a scholarship and spends his free time in the old neighborhood mentoring middle school kids and holding basketball clinics.”

            Don tapped the stack of papers and pictures in the folder.  “There are more of the same in here.  We have more success stories than we do of the not so good kind.  Many of the people we’ve helped or have scared straight are now productive, strong members of society and are exponentially helping more people than we could ever hope to.  They are ‘paying it forward’ Raph.

            “We don’t have to resort to drastic measures to accomplish great things.  Whenever I feel like I’m forgetting that, I pull out my folder and look through it.  This one is yours; keep it handy for those times when you feel like you’re powerless.  Remember that every one of these people are working alongside of us now; all of them pushing back against evil and teaching others to do the same.”

            Raph reached out and took the picture of the kids from Don’s fingers, his hand shaking as he stared at it.  Twin tears rolled from the corners of his eyes and when he looked up at Don, there were others brimming at the edges of his eyelids.

            “I love ya’ bro’,” Raph said, his voice husky with emotion.

            “I love you too, Raph,” Don said, swiping his thumb across Raph’s tears.  “We all do.”

            Don made him get some sleep after their conversation.  A few hours later the rest of the family visited with Raph, one by one.  There were no recriminations or arguments, just forgiveness and understanding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

            Two weeks later the brothers were standing together in a small cemetery on the outskirts of the city.  It was their second stop; they had already paid their respects at another cemetery earlier in the evening.

            As Leo, Don, and Mikey stood by, Raph kneeled next to a grave and placed a bouquet of flowers at the base of the headstone.  Head down, he set his hand on the marker that was engraved with the name of the woman who had been killed on the bus and whispered to her.

            When he was finished, he got up and stepped back so that each of his brothers could set a bouquet of their own next to the one Raph had left there.

            The ritual complete, the four turtles embraced, holding each other tightly beneath a clear, starry sky.  Raph felt as though a great weight had been lifted off of his heart and that his soul, which he had come to see as dark, was suddenly bright again.

            He knew that it was in his character to feel things more deeply than the others and he also knew they understood that about him.  Raph was determined not to allow those feelings to crush his spirit ever again.  His family wouldn’t allow it.

END


End file.
